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Globalization and Health
Published in: Globalization and Health 1/2019

Open Access 01-11-2019 | Research

Power asymmetries in global governance for health: a conceptual framework for analyzing the political-economic determinants of health inequities

Authors: Alexander Kentikelenis, Connor Rochford

Published in: Globalization and Health | Special Issue 1/2019

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Abstract

Background

Recent scholarship has increasingly identified global power asymmetries as the root cause of health inequities. This article examines how such asymmetries manifest in global governance for health, and how this impacts health outcomes.

Results

We focus on the political-economic determinants of global health inequities, and how these determinants operate at different levels of social action (micro, meso, and macro) through distinct but interacting mechanisms. To clarify how these mechanisms operate, we develop an integrative framework for examining the links between global neoliberalism—the currently dominant policy paradigm premised on advancing the reach of markets and promoting ever-growing international economic integration—and global health inequities, and show how these mechanisms have macro–macro, macro–meso–macro, and macro–micro–macro manifestations.

Conclusions

Our approach enables the design of theoretically-nuanced empirical strategies to document the multiple ways in which the political economy entrenches or, alternatively, might ameliorate global health inequities.
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Metadata
Title
Power asymmetries in global governance for health: a conceptual framework for analyzing the political-economic determinants of health inequities
Authors
Alexander Kentikelenis
Connor Rochford
Publication date
01-11-2019
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Globalization and Health / Issue Special Issue 1/2019
Electronic ISSN: 1744-8603
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-019-0516-4

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