The Politics of Researching Global Health Politics; Comment on “Knowledge, Moral Claims and the Exercise of Power in Global Health”

Document Type : Commentary

Author

Department of Politics, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

Abstract

In this comment, I build on Shiffman’s call for the global health community to more deeply investigate structural and productive power. I highlight two challenges we must grapple with as social scientists carrying out the types of investigation that Shiffman proposes: the politics of  challenging the powerful; and the need to investigate types of expertise that have traditionally been thought of as ‘outside’ global health. In doing so, I argue that moving forward with the agenda Shiffman sets out requires social scientists interested in the global politics of health to be reflexive about our own exercise of structural and productive power and the fact that researching global health politics is itself a political undertaking.

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References

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History

  • Receive Date: 01 February 2015
  • Revise Date: 04 March 2015
  • Accept Date: 02 March 2015
  • First Publish Date: 01 May 2015

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