International Journal of Health Policy and Management

International Journal of Health Policy and Management

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

Document Type : Commentary

Author
Simon Rushton
Department of Politics, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
10.15171/ijhpm.2015.47
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.
Keywords
Global Health
Politics
Knowledge
Research
Reflexivity
Subjects
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  • Received Date 01 February 2015
  • Revised Date 04 March 2015
  • Accepted Date 02 March 2015
  • First Published Date 01 May 2015
  • Published Date 01 May 2015