Security, Emancipation and the Politics of Health ― A New Theoretical Perspective

This book develops a new theoretical framework for the study of security issues and applies this to the case of health.

Building on the work of the ‘Welsh School’ of Security Studies, and drawing on contributions from the wider critical security literature, the book provides an emancipatory perspective on the health-security nexus – one which simultaneously teases out its underlying political assumptions, assesses its political effects and identifies potential for transformation.

This book challenges conventional wisdom in the field of health and international politics by conceiving of health as a fundamentally political issue – and not merely as a medical problem demanding ‘technical’ solutions and arrangements. In this regard, the book shows that political processes of representation underpin notions of health and disease; that understandings and practices of health contribute to shaping social relations and political communities; and that debates over health provision foreground deeper political struggles over citizenship, justice and reconciliation. In addition to undertaking a systematic study of the politics of health, this book is also innovative by going beyond the existing emancipatory literature in security studies, and by developing and applying a full-blown theoretical framework for the analysis and normative assessment of security issues.

This book will be of much interest to students of critical security studies, health politics, sociology and IR in general.

This book thus makes a contribution to two areas of research in International Politics. By providing an emancipatory perspective on the health-security nexus and a methodical study of the political dimensions of health, this book deliberately sets out to make an impact in the theoretical development of the burgeoning Health and International Politics literature. Moreover, by combining insights from different critical approaches to security into a novel emancipatory framework, the book will push forward the critical literature in Security Studies.