Technologies of neoliberal governmentality: The discursive influence of global economic policies on public health

2009 ◽  
pp. 400-420
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Neoliberal Governmentality

Health and Environmental Tolls of Protracted Conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 120 (830) ◽  
pp. 339-345
Author(s):  
Jeannie Sowers ◽  
Erika Weinthal
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Environmental Pollution ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
War Zones ◽  
Access To Food

The effects of conflict on public health and ecosystem well-being are understudied and rarely figure in public debates about war-making. Protracted conflicts are particularly damaging to people and environments in ways that are inadequately documented. In recent wars in the Middle East and North Africa, parties to the conflicts have induced hunger and displacement and undermined public health through the use of violence and economic policies that deprive civilians of access to food, water, fuel, and livelihoods. Environmental pollution is widespread, particularly in cities that became war zones, while the COVID-19 pandemic has deepened conflict-induced poverty and food insecurity.

scholarly journals Globalisation, Public Health and COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-70
Author(s):  
Rajendra Karkee
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Global Health ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Health Improvement ◽  
Economic Policies

Public Health is the collective action for sustained population-wide health improvement. There are various factors that can affect the health of a population. These factors are often summarised as social, economic, political, cultural, and environmental factors. Along with these classical factors, there is another emerging factor in 21st century; that is globalisation. Globalisation and ‘Global Health’ has become an important aspect of public health to be known by a public health graduates Not only transmissions of diseases across borders are threat but also economic policies, politics, trade treaties, expansion of multination companies and consumption of foods affect health worldwide.

32 and 37 inches – the healthy body and the politics of waist circumference: a governmental analysis of the Stop the Spread campaign

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona Dukelow
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Promotion ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Waist Circumference ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Medical Discourse ◽  
Neoliberal Governmentality ◽  
Health Promotion Campaign ◽  
Soft Paternalism ◽  
Healthy Body

This chapter focuses on a the 2011 health promotion campaign Stop the Spread, part of which involved the distribution of measuring tapes to the population via pharmacies to encourage people to measure their waists. Drawing on an analysis of campaign materials, the chapter explores the significance of Stop the Spread as a governmental technology and form of biopower in which medical discourse was utilised in an effort to not only re-programme ideas of what a normal healthy body should measure and look like, but also to more directly attempt to change behaviour by gifting people the technology to measure themselves, and to ultimately inscribe those numbers on their bodies. This chapter provides insights into how neoliberal governmentality is evolving in relation to public health policy, not least in the context of soft paternalism which is more directive in its use of techniques and strategies to steer norms and behaviour, whilst remaining highly individualised in terms of its understanding of health and its determinants.

Compliant Singaporean Christians? State-Centred Christian Responses to COVID-19 in a Single-Party Dominant State

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-260
Author(s):  
Joshua Dao Wei Sim
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Socially Responsible ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Contemporary Christian ◽  
Dominant State ◽  
The Government ◽  
Liberal Christianity ◽  
City State

Since the political suppression and decline of liberal Christianity in Singapore during the 1980s, Christian groups in the city-state have striven to maintain subordinate relations with the government by largely supporting and not challenging the major socio-economic policies and discourses of the dominant People's Action Party (PAP). The COVID-19 pandemic supplies us with a unique window of opportunity to understand how Singaporean Christian groups have been compliant actors to the state's policies, even during this health crisis. By evaluating the differing responses of various churches and organisations, I argue that in spite of inadequacies in the state's public health and social measures, Christian leaders and groups crafted state-centred responses, and engaged in crisis-driven social action and the construction of state-affirming narratives within government-promoted boundaries. This also meant that Christians have projected an image of themselves as being socially-responsible Singaporeans who are willing to adhere to the government's crisis-mandated standards, while sacrificing their regular faith-based practices and physical gatherings for the greater good of the nation. The willingness to adhere to the single-party state's measures and boundaries has, nevertheless, disclosed the Christian community's inability to provide a critical voice about public health gaps and socio-economic injustices during this crisis. Secular civil-society groups and academics have filled this gap by highlighting these problems and criticising the government's failures. In sum, the COVID-19 episode reveals the lack of a ‘prophetic’ capacity in the responses of contemporary Christian groups and leaders because of their predilection to firstly acquiesce with the state.

Well-Being Economics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Dalziel ◽  
Trudi Cameron
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
The Public ◽  
Economic Production ◽  
Global Movement ◽  
Policy Work ◽  
New Institutions ◽  
Statistical Indicators ◽  
Average Health

A strong social gradient in the experience of health means that a person’s health tends to reflect social position. There is strong evidence that average health outcomes in a country tend to be poorer when income inequality is greater. Consequently, public health policy is influenced by a country’s economic situation. Adopting principles in the Helsinki Statement on Health in All Policies, this means governments should pay attention to the public health implications of its economic policies, moving beyond simple analyses of how policy might support growth in gross domestic product. Since 2009, a global movement has aimed to shift the emphasis of economic policy evaluation from measuring economic production to measuring people’s well-being. This approach is known as well-being economics. Many countries have engaged with citizens to create their own national well-being framework of statistical indicators. Some countries have passed legislation or designed new institutions to focus specific policy areas on promoting the well-being of current and future generations. A small number of countries are attempting to embed well-being in their core economic policies. Further policy work and research are required for the vision of a well-being economy to be realized.

Neoliberal governmentality and public health policy in Ireland

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanne Wilson ◽  
Lindsay Prior
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle ◽  
The State ◽  
Neoliberal Governmentality ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Liberal Government ◽  
The Individual

This chapter provides an analysis of some of Ireland’s key public health policy documents since 1994 in the context of advanced liberal government. The analysis reveals how Irish public health strategies increasingly target the individual in terms of responsibilising behaviours, inculcating them to make healthy lifestyle choices and mitigate against health risks. Scrutinising the claims and arguments set out in three health documents-Shaping a healthier future (Department of Health, 1994), Quality and fairness – A health service for you(Department of Health and Children, 2001), and Healthy Ireland (Department of Health, 2013)-they note the increasing shift to a market-based model of healthcare, and of the role of the state as one amongst many actors in the health policy arena. Health policymaking, as they argue, has become an increasingly technocratic process, and their analysis raises significant questions about the implications of neoliberal modes of government in the context of the three documents’ acknowledgement of persistent health inequalities in the State.

scholarly journals Intersectoral policy on industries that produce unhealthy commodities: governing in a new era of the global economy?

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. e002246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphael Lencucha ◽  
Anne Marie Thow
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Government Regulation ◽  
Market Competition ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Voluntary Standards ◽  
Finance Industry ◽  
Health Community ◽  
Regulatory Instruments ◽  
The Status

Tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy foods are key contributors to non-communicable diseases globally. Public health advocates have been proactive in recent years, developing systems to monitor and mitigate both health harms and influence by these industries. However, establishing and implementating strong government regulation of these unhealthy product-producing industries remains challenging. The relevant regulatory instruments lie not only with ministries of health but with agriculture, finance, industry and trade, largely driven by economic concerns. These policy sectors are often unreceptive to public health imperatives for restrictions on industry, including policies regarding labelling, marketing and excise taxes. Heavily influenced by traditional economic paradigms, they have been more receptive to industry calls for (unfettered) market competition, the rights of consumers to choose and the need for government to allow industry free rein; at most to establish voluntary standards of consumer protection, and certainly not to directly regulate industry products and practices. In recent years, the status quo of a narrow economic rationality that places economic growth above health, environment or other social goals is being re-evaluated by some governments and key international economic agencies, leading to windows of opportunity with the potential to transform how governments approach food, tobacco and alcohol as major, industry-driven risk factors. To take advantage of this window of opportunity, the public health community must work with different sectors of government to(1) reimagine policy mandates, drawing on whole-of-government imperatives for sustainable development, and (2) closely examine the institutional structures and governance processes, in order to create points of leverage for economic policies that also support improved health outcomes.

Afterword: The “Trade and … ” Conundrum—A Commentary

2002 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debra P. Steger
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Labor Rights ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Settlement System ◽  
Trading System ◽  
Appellate Body ◽  
Nontariff Barriers ◽  
Dispute Settlement System ◽  
Trade And Investment

The issue of whether and how the trading system should deal with social and economic policies not strictly within the ambit of the WTO has been with us at least since the inception of the GATT in 1947-1948. It is not a new question. The problem, however, has become even more vexing since the 1970s, as tariffs became less important in trading relationships and governments struggled to respond to a proliferation of nontariff barriers to trade. I will argue, in this Afterword, that the question is not whether the WTO should or should not deal with the “trade and … ” subjects—trade and environment, trade and public health, trade and labor rights, trade and human rights, trade and competition, trade and investment, and trade and intellectual property, to name a few. It already does and has done so, in many respects, since 1948. The question I would pose is this: how should these so-called nontrade subjects be dealt with within the WTO system? And who should define the scope of WTO recognition/cognizance of these subjects: WTO member governments (the “Members”) or the quasi-judicial bodies of the dispute settlement system (the panels and the Appellate Body)?

scholarly journals The pious dissidence in Turkey: Contesting religious neoliberal governmentality under the AKP

Politics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 413-427
Author(s):  
Umut Korkut ◽  
Yusuf Sarfati
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Political Islam ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Neoliberal Governmentality ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Sharp Criticism

Turkey under the AKP governments constitutes an exemplary case for understanding how centralized religion, authoritarianism, and economic logic of neoliberalism interrelate. AKP uses state-guided religion to legitimize its neoliberal economic policies and create docile, economized citizens. This article specifically focuses on how pious Muslims resist AKP’s religious neoliberalism by focusing on actions and deliberations of Labor and Justice Platform members. Our discussion, which consists of face-to-face interviews with the members of this social movement, delineates the group’s justice-oriented, egalitarian, and pluralist orientation of Islam and depicts their dialogues with power – embodied in AKP’s domination of Islamic discourse in Turkey. We discuss how group members reinterpret religious concepts such as kader (fate), kısmet (destiny), and sabır (patience) that the AKP uses as micro-discursive mechanisms to create economically compliant citizens. We also discuss the specific frames of resistance they develop in order to break out from the resilience and adaptation that AKP has embedded in its narratives of economy and work. These frames include a sharp criticism of market Islam, a challenge to political Islam and dissent against state Islam. Theoretically, the article refers to neoliberal governmentality and explores its contestation – an understudied concept in Foucauldian studies.

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