[CFP] Conference 2023 – PE of Health and Health Care Working Group

Call for Papers | Political Economy of Health and Healthcare Working Group

SEPTEMBER 6-8, 2023, UNIVERSIDAD REY JUAN CARLOS, MADRID, SPAIN

To submit a paper (or stream of papers), please click on this link and follow the instructions: https://whova.com/portal/registration/iippe_202309/nni4xwk1

The IIPPE Health and Healthcare Working Group invites proposals for papers to participate in a panel (or stream of panels) on the theme of privatisation and financialisation of health and social care services.

Covid-19 has had profound effects on healthcare delivery around the world. Moreover, the fiscal strain of Covid-19 looks set to trigger widespread austerity, putting further pressure on health budgets. In 2023 85% of the world’s population is expected to be living with such measures,1 despite the expansionary expenditure policies seen at the peak of the pandemic in most high- and middle- income countries.

The result is likely to foster new roles for the private sector in public health systems. For example, the World Bank calls on governments to ‘harness the power of the private sector’ in building resilient health systems in the wake of the pandemic.2 In some countries (such as the UK and Australia) the public health provider has announced plans to use the private sector to help clear backlogs.

There are, then, diverse dimensions to the role of the private sector in health systems, and these are shifting in response to global and national pressures. We invite papers that relate to these broad themes from a political economy perspective that unpack the dynamics of processes of privatisation and financialisation, as well as the impacts of these. Possible themes might include:

• How have privatisation and / or financialisation affected health systems? What are the effects on what is provided, to whom and on what terms? What are the effects on the workforce?
• How has Covid-19 affected the role of the private sector in health systems?
• What are the gendered and/or racialised effects of private sector involvement in health systems?
• How have privatisation and financialisation impacted on health systems from a ‘right to health’ perspective?
• How have privatisation and financialisation affected understandings and meanings of health systems?
• What were the effects of expansionary policies (Keynesian approach) during and after the pandemic?

Any questions about this call can be sent over to: Jonathan Filippon (j.filippon@qmul.ac.uk), Jasmine Gideon (j.gideon@bbk.ac.uk) or Kate Bayliss (kb6@soas.co.uk)