Towards a political science of health and healthcare

Both prior to and since the outbreak of Covid-19, there have been calls from scholars in the field of health and healthcare to ‘bring political science in’ and engage directly with the role of politics in the achievement of health objectives (Bambra et al. 2005; Gagnon et al. 2017; Lynch 2023; Gomez et al. 2022). While there is a diverse and important body of literature on politics that addresses health and healthcare (eg Harman 2018; Immergut et al. 2021; Lynch 2020; Brooks et al. 2024), it remains disparate, clustered into sub-disciplinary groupings that focus on, for instance, global health governance, public health policy and the welfare state, politics of health inequalities, or political determinants of health. Political scientists working on these topics rarely meet. Instead, they tend to exchange knowledge and collaborate with colleagues from other disciplines. This workshop will provide, for the first time, a strong disciplinary framework that brings together researchers working on the broader topics of health and healthcare within political science. As part of developing a special issue, participants will be asked to reflect on the contribution of political science to health and healthcare topics as well as on insights from health-related research to political science at large. Interest in health by general political science during the Covid and post-Covid period (as witnessed by the 2021 ECPR panels) suggests that the field is ripe for a more explicit rethinking of its boundaries, past contributions and future research priorities.

Bambra C., Fox D., Scott-Samuel A. (2005) Towards a politics of health. Health Promotion International 20(2):187-93. Brooks, E., Godziewski, C., & Deruelle, T. (2024). The Political Determinants of Health and the European Union. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 49 (5): 673–689.. Gagnon, F., Bergeron, P., Clavier, C., Fafard, P., Martin, E., & Blouin, C. (2017). Why and How Political Science Can Contribute to Public Health? Proposals for Collaborative Research Avenues. International journal of health policy and management, 6(9), 495–499. Gómez, E. J., Singh, P., Shiffman, J., & Barberia, L. (2022). Political science and global health policy. The Lancet, 399(10341), 2080-2082. Harman, S. (2018). Ebola, gender and conspicuously invisible women in global health governance. In The International Politics of Ebola (pp. 152-169). Routledge. Immergut, E. M., Anderson, K. M., Devitt, C., & Popic, T. (Eds.). (2021). Health politics in Europe: A handbook. Oxford University Press. Lynch, J. (2020). Regimes of inequality: the political economy of health and wealth. Cambridge University Press. Lynch, J. (2023). The Political Economy of Health: Bringing Political Science In. Annual Review of Political Science, Vol. 26:389-410.

1: What are the (potential) components / contributions of a political science of health and healthcare?
2: What are the different meanings of ‘political’ in research on health and healthcare?
3: What are the strengths and blindspots of the dominant approaches to health politics research?
4: What methodological and/or theoretical challenges face health and healthcare politics research?
5: How can we support the development of a political science of health and healthcare?

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