Just Global Health? Reid-Henry, Simon
Development and change,
07/2016, Letnik:
47, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
ABSTRACT
Some 40 years ago, the public health philosopher Dan Beauchamp suggested that ‘public health should be a way of doing justice’. The argument put forward in this essay is that global health ...should be a way of doing global justice, by ameliorating the health inequalities that exclude many millions of people globally from enjoying a healthy life and from the benefits of a fuller inclusion in modern society. The essay develops this argument in three stages. First, it sets out some points of intersection between the politics of (global) health and competing ideas of justice. It offers a very basic typology of global health policy and practice that divides it into ‘market‐justice’ and ‘social‐justice’ models, and shows why it is the market‐justice model that at present dominates. Second, the essay explores how mainstream ‘market‐justice’ approaches to global health deal with the problem of health inequality rather weakly, and it is suggested that there are both historical and geographical reasons for this. Third, three ‘social‐justice’ approaches to global health are explored that better take those historical and geographical conditions into account. In conclusion the essay offers some thoughts on the political uses of theories of justice.
: The US government has presented Guantánamo Bay to the world through the lens of “exceptional sovereignty”. This argument holds that international law does not apply at Guantanamo because while ...America has “complete authority” over the base “ultimate sovereignty” rests with Cuba. Many accounts rightly critical of the abuses of power taking place at Guantanamo similarly understand it as something wholly abnormal—a literal “non‐place”. But in falling back on this argument both the American position and many of its critics have tended to “black box” what is taking place within the camp. In this paper I suggest that we ditch any sort of critique that says Guantanamo is somehow outside of the law and instead replace this line of argument with a critical history of the deployment of a particular sort of Executive power there. From this perspective, Guantanamo is better understood as a rather more normal part of the current imperial moment and connected up in various ways to American imaginations and materialisations of power. As a way of exploring some of these connections in greater detail, I examine the construction of Guantanamo as a particular sort of social space by drawing upon the accounts of those who have been there: former guards, detainees and their defence lawyers.
International financing for health has been high on the political and global health agenda since COVID-19. The recent launch of the Pandemic Fund represents the first consolidated effort of the ...international community to mobilise additional voluntary financial resources for the purpose of strengthening global efforts in pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (PPR). Against such a dynamic landscape, building on recent critiques and new policy proposals, we propose a new generation of more equitable, effective and coordinated financing arrangements for pandemic PPR and for global health and development more broadly: lessons that could be applied in the ongoing endeavour of the Pandemic Fund. We also explore the principles of Global Public Investment and consider their potential to achieve greater inclusiveness in governance, diversity in financing, and transparency and performance in operations. The Pandemic Fund could become the first example of a global health initiative based on innovative concepts. It needs to be broad based, more flexible, leverage a great variety of funding sources and join forces with multiple stakeholders to maximise the impact.
In this response I reflect on the contributions of the recently published report of the International Panel on Social Progress. I focus in particular on the Report's treatment of the relationship ...between inequality and democracy: the proper subject of Chapter 14 in Part II of the report but also a central concern throughout the text. I begin by setting the Report's arguments more fully in the historical context of the past few decades, and specifically the post-1970s era. I then interrogate in more detail the relationship between liberalism and democracy before examining each of three key themes raised by the report: the domestic challenges posed by economic inequality to political pluralism; the relationship between the state and globalisation; and the extent to which current institutional arrangements of liberal democratic systems articulate and safeguard the basic values and moral principles of democracy. I conclude by looking forward.
Life has been problematized anew by recent social change and scientific innovation. There are important and little studied geographical dimensions to any such understanding of "the politics of life ...itself," however. A geographical perspective involves, first, highlighting the spatial aspects of both states and capital, two rather neglected dimensions of vital politics. Elaborating the geographical constitution of vital politics entails further describing the related powers of knowledges and practices. Reflecting on the geographical dimensions of longevity and health leads directly to a recognition of the ethical implications of the geographical luck of birth and residence. Taking up this ethical challenge requires specifying at least six components of geographical justice: culpability, fairness, care, state failure, human rights, and solidarity with environmental and social justice.
The Cuban cure S. M. Reid-Henry; S. M. Reid-Henry
2010., 2010, 20100101
eBook
After Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, his second declaration, after socialism, was that Cuba would become a leader in international science. In biotechnology he would be proven right and, today, ...Cuba counts a meningitis B vaccine and cutting-edge cancer therapies to its name. But how did this politically and geographically isolated country make such impressive advances? Drawing on a unique ethnography, and blending the insights of anthropology, sociology, and geography, The Cuban Cure shows how Cuba came to compete with U. S. pharmaceutical giants—despite a trade embargo and crippling national debt. In uncovering what is distinct about Cuban biomedical science, S. M. Reid-Henry examines the forms of resistance that biotechnology research in Cuba presents to the globalization of western models of scientific culture and practice. He illustrates the epistemic, social, and ideological clashes that take place when two cultures of research meet, and how such interactions develop as political and economic circumstances change. Through a novel argument about the intersection of socioeconomic systems and the nature of innovation, The Cuban Cure presents an illuminating study of politics and science in the context of globalization.
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