Overview

This handbook provides a comprehensive and critical overview of the gamut of contemporary issues around health and healthcare from a political economy perspective. Its contributions present a unique challenge to prevailing economic accounts of health and healthcare, which narrowly focus on individual behaviour and market processes. Instead, the capacity of the human body to reach its full potential and the ability of society to prevent disease and cure illness are demonstrated to be shaped by a broader array of political economic processes. The material conditions in which societies produce, distribute, exchange, consume, and reproduce – and the operation of power relations therein – influence all elements of human health: from food consumption and workplace safety, to inequality, healthcare and housing, and even the biophysical conditions in which humans live. This volume explores these concerns across five sections. First, it introduces and critically engages with a variety of established and cutting-edge theoretical perspectives in political economy to conceptualise health and healthcare – from neoclassical and behavioural economics, to Marxist and feminist approaches. The next two sections extend these insights to evaluate the neoliberalisation of health and healthcare over the past 40 years, highlighting their individualisation and commodification by the capitalist state and powerful corporations. The fourth section examines the diverse manifestation of these dynamics across a range of geographical contexts. The volume concludes with a section devoted to outlining more progressive health and healthcare arrangements, which transcend the limitations of both neoliberalism and capitalism. This volume will be an indispensable reference work for students and scholars of political economy, health policy and politics, health economics, health geography, the sociology of health, and other health-related disciplines.

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9780367861360

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Reviews

‘A smorgasbord of insights into the world of healthcare, it is a celebration of the very best of political economy with its capacity to make sense of economic and social issues with immediate relevance for the health and well-being of humans.’ - Fran Collyer, Professor of Sociology, University of Wollongong, and President RC08 International Sociological Association ‘This book, containing a commendably broad array of chapters by international experts, takes stock of these main strands of research and the insights they offer. Right up-to-date, it looks at the key political economic lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic. Looking to the future, it identifies what changes to political economic arrangements would be conducive to creating healthy societies. It is an eye-opener and a must-read.’ - Frank Stilwell, Emeritus Professor of Political Economy, University of Sydney ‘This handbook is a vital contribution to our understanding of an impressive range of topics and critical perspectives. It diagnoses urgent shortcomings in the current system and offers constructive approaches for reducing health harms.’ - Susan K. Sell, Professor of Regulation and Global Governance, Australian National University, and Emeritus Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, George Washington University. ‘The Routledge Handbook of the Political Economy of Health and Healthcare makes a superb contribution to the necessary and inevitable literature of what went wrong with the institutions responsible for the COVID-19 crisis.’ - Robert Chernomas, Professor of Economics, University of Manitoba.

‘A smorgasbord of insights into the world of healthcare, this volume begins with an informative explanation of political economy with its focus on class power and class struggle, and proceeds to offer a wealth of studies from veterans in the field as well as a sprinkle of contributions from early, and very promising, career academics. The chapters offer a plurality of theoretical approaches, demonstrating the diversity and versatility of the interdisciplinary basis of political economy, and cover issues from many different regions and countries of the world. The Handbook is, indeed, a convincing portrayal of health and healthcare under the exorbitant and inexorable demands of capitalism, particularly as experienced with the historically recent shift to neoliberal governance. Unlike other collections, which investigate the causes of the current world malaise, here we also find suggestions for how the future of healthcare might be different. It is a celebration of the very best of political economy with its capacity to make sense of economic and social issues with immediate relevance for the health and well-being of humans.’ - Fran Collyer, Professor of Sociology, University of Wollongong, and President RC08 International Sociological Association ‘Coming fifteen years after the report of the 2008 World Health Organization (WHO) Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, and the all-too-predictable soft-pedaling and depoliticization of this widely-adopted framework, this volume constitutes a timely return to – and expansion of – critical political economy critiques of health and healthcare. Mainly concerned with the harmful impacts of neoliberal/market fundamentalist capitalism, its rich chapters usefully build a case for systemic political economic change, mindful of the interdependent material and ecological world that provides the basis for life and death on this planet.’ - Nancy Krieger, Professor of Social Epidemiology and American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor, Harvard University ‘Challenged by capitalism and chipped away by neoliberalism, the global COVID-19 pandemic brought into sharp focus longstanding concerns with the political economy of health and healthcare. This Handbook rises to the occasion by providing readers with theory- and problem-driven coverage that does not sacrifice depth for breadth, offering a comprehensive analysis befitting its pressing subject matter. The book will surely move studies in political economy, and be of interest to anyone seeking to better understand the contours of health and healthcare today.’ - Heather Whiteside, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Waterloo. ‘What you see depends on the lens through which you look. Looking at health through a political economic lens draws attention to the socio-economic factors that influence the incidence of specific illnesses. More generally, it brings into focus the systemic political economic factors that create unhealthy societies and impede the effective provision of health services. Some political economic lenses emphasise class relations, gender, work and social reproduction; others examine the exercise of corporate power and neoliberalism’s impact on government finances and social policy. This book, containing a commendably broad array of chapters by international experts, takes stock of these main strands of research and the insights they offer. Right up-to-date, it looks at the key political economic lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic. Looking to the future, it identifies what changes to political economic arrangements would be conducive to creating healthy societies. It is an eye-opener and a must-read.’ - Frank Stilwell, Emeritus Professor of Political Economy, University of Sydney ‘This handbook is a vital contribution to our understanding of an impressive range of topics and critical perspectives. It diagnoses urgent shortcomings in the current system and offers constructive approaches for reducing health harms.’ - Susan K. Sell, Professor of Regulation and Global Governance, Australian National University, and Emeritus Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, George Washington University. ‘The Routledge Handbook of the Political Economy of Health and Healthcare makes a superb contribution to the necessary and inevitable literature of what went wrong with the institutions responsible for the COVID-19 crisis. Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet, argues against the medical model explanation of the COVID pandemic preferred by infectious disease specialists that framed the emergency ‘in centuries-old terms of plague’. Rather, he argues that the crisis is better understood as ‘syndemic’, as clustered ‘within social groups according to patterns of inequality deeply embedded in our societies’. Neither mainstream medicine nor mainstream economics, with their focus on biomedical and economic methodological individualism, can provide such a framework to comprehend what happened and what needs to change. Conversely, this timely and exceptional book goes beyond liberal alternatives, which rightly focus on the social determinants of health and universal healthcare, to identify profits and ideology as setting the limits to what is possible.’ - Robert Chernomas, Professor of Economics, University of Manitoba. 'This important book offers an excellent second-generation account of the political economy of health. The inclusion of a significant cohort of relatively new authors from many parts of the world ensures a level of diversity and innovation that is too often missing from other works in the field. It is written in an accessible yet rigorous style, with both empirical data and new theoretical insights from many geopolitical settings which aid in the analysis of the continuing crises in global health.' Lesley Doyal, Emeritus Professor of Health and Social Care, University of Bristol.

‘A smorgasbord of insights into the world of healthcare, it is a celebration of the very best of political economy with its capacity to make sense of economic and social issues with immediate relevance for the health and well-being of humans.’ Fran Collyer, Professor of Sociology, University of Wollongong, and President RC08 International Sociological Association ‘This book, containing a commendably broad array of chapters by international experts, takes stock of these main strands of research and the insights they offer. Right up-to-date, it looks at the key political economic lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic. Looking to the future, it identifies what changes to political economic arrangements would be conducive to creating healthy societies. It is an eye-opener and a must-read.’ Frank Stilwell, Emeritus Professor of Political Economy, University of Sydney ‘This handbook is a vital contribution to our understanding of an impressive range of topics and critical perspectives. It diagnoses urgent shortcomings in the current system and offers constructive approaches for reducing health harms.’ Susan K. Sell, Professor of Regulation and Global Governance, Australian National University, and Emeritus Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, George Washington University ‘The Routledge Handbook of the Political Economy of Health and Healthcare makes a superb contribution to the necessary and inevitable literature of what went wrong with the institutions responsible for the COVID-19 crisis.’ Robert Chernomas, Professor of Economics, University of Manitoba

Author Information

David Primrose is in the Menzies Centre for Health Policy and Economics, University of Sydney, Australia. Rodney Loeppky is in the Department of Political Science, York University, Canada. Robin Chang is in the Department of Political Science, York University, Canada.

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