Commercial Influence and Global Nongovernmental Public Action in Health and Pharmaceutical Policies

Abstract The economic and social drivers of democratisation and the emergence and establishment of democratic institutions are longstanding themes of academic discourse. Within this broad body of literature, it has been argued that the process of urbanisation is also conducive to the emergence and consolidation of democracy through a number of different channels. Cities offer better access to education and facilitate organised public action and the demand for more democratic rule and respect of human rights. The nexus between urbanisation and human rights is the theme that is taken up in the present paper. Using a sample of 123 countries for the period 1981–2011, the paper examines empirically the association between urbanisation and human empowerment using the Cingranelli-Richards Index. In broad terms, the findings reported herein do not point to a strong nexus across all income groups. Nevertheless, there is evidence suggesting the presence of such a statistically significant positive association in specific cases.

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Subversive Mobilities

Transfers ◽

10.3167/trans.2013.030103 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 7-25 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Mikkel Thelle

Keyword(s):

Public Space ◽

Cultural History ◽

Turn Of The Century ◽

Public Action ◽

History Of ◽

Urban Conflict

The article approaches mobility through a cultural history of urban conflict. Using a case of “The Copenhagen Trouble,“ a series of riots in the Danish capital around 1900, a space of subversive mobilities is delineated. These turn-of-the-century riots points to a new pattern of mobile gathering, the swarm; to a new aspect of public action, the staging; and to new ways of configuring public space. These different components indicate an urban assemblage of subversion, and a new characterization of the “throwntogetherness“ of the modern public.

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On the Volatile Relationship of Secularization and New Religious Movements

10.1093/oso/9780198798071.003.0006 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

David Holland

Keyword(s):

Religious Movements ◽

New Religious Movements ◽

Illustrative Case ◽

Religious Groups ◽

Christian Science ◽

The Public ◽

Public Action ◽

Public Square ◽

Relationship Of ◽

The Relationship

This chapter considers the complex relationship between secularization and the emergence of new religious movements. Drawing from countervailing research, some of which insists that new religious movements abet secularizing processes and some of which sees these movements as disproving the secularization thesis, the chapter presents the relationship as inherently unstable. To the extent that new religious movements maintain a precarious balance of familiarity and foreignness—remaining familiar enough to stretch the definitional boundaries of religion—they contribute to secularization. However, new religious movements frequently lean to one side or other of that median, either promoting religious power in the public square by identifying with the interests of existing religious groups, or emphasizing their distinctiveness from these groups and thus provoking aggressive public action by the antagonized religious mainstream. This chapter centres on an illustrative case from Christian Science history.

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Health Disparities and the Law: Wrongs in Search of a Right

American Journal of Law & Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0098858800002884 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 29 (2-3) ◽

pp. 363-380

Author(s):

Mary Anne Bobinski

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Health Planning ◽

Healthy People ◽

Public Action ◽

Traditional Health ◽

Obesity And Diabetes ◽

Wide Range ◽

State Coercion ◽

Healthy People 2010 ◽

Over Time

Healthy People 2010 provides our Nation with the wide range of public health opportunities that exist in the first decade of the 21st century. With 467 objectives in 28 focus areas, Healthy People 2010 will be a tremendously valuable asset … . Healthy People 2010 reflects the very best in public health planning—it is comprehensive, it was created by a broad coalition of experts from many sectors, it has been designed to measure progress over time, and, most important, it clearly lays out a series of objectives to bring better health to all people in this country.The current responses to the traditional health perils … have been weakened. At the same time, it seems to this outsider as though the entire public health establishment is united around the proposition that massive public action should be taken to deal with the new “epidemics,” such as obesity and diabetes … . But the use of the term “epidemic” is just the wrong way to think about this issue. There are no noncommunicable epidemics … . Yet the designation [of] obesity as a public health epidemic is designed to signal that state coercion is appropriate … .

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