This useful article examines the field of 'global health' through four different social theories, providing useful insights into different ways to approach global health study. Certainly a must read for social scientists working in this area!
Summary: Global health, many would agree, is more a bunch of problems than a discipline. As such it lacks theories that can generalise findings—through an iterative process of knowledge construction, empirical testing, critique, new generalisation, and so on—into durable intellectual frameworks that can be applied not only to distinctive health problems, but to different contexts and future scenarios. This lack may or may not have slowed progress in developing and implementing programmes, but it surely has limited the education of practitioners and the emergence of an intellectually robust field.
Full article available free of charge at The Lancet: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)60646-0/abstract
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