Health Inequalities

Katherine Smith is a Reader at the Global Public Health Unit in the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on analysing policies affecting public health (especially health inequalities) and better understanding the relationships between public health research, policy, advocacy and lobbying. Katherine recently brought some of this work together in a book entitled Beyond Evidence Based Policy in Public Health: The Interplay of Ideas, as part of a new book series, Palgrave Studies in Science, Knowledge and Policy, which she co-edits with Professor Richard Freeman. From January 2011-December 2012, Katherine held an MRC-ESRC Post-Doctoral Fellowship, followed by an ESRC Future Research Leaders award in 2013-2015.Clare Bambra is Professor of Public Health Geography, Centre for Health and Inequalities Research, Durham University. Her research focuses on the health effects of labour markets, health and welfare systems, as well as the role of public policies to reduce health inequalities. She has published extensively in the field of health inequalities including a book on Work, Worklessness and the Political economy of Health (Oxford University Press, 2011). She contributed to the Marmot Review (2010); the European Commission's Health Inequalities in the EU report (2013); the US National Research Council Report on US Health in International Perspective (2013) as well as the Public Health England commissioned report on the health equity in the North of England: Due North (2014).Sarah Hill is a Public Health Physician and Senior Lecturer at the Global Public Health Unit in the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on health inequalities and the social determinants of health, tobacco and health, and global health. She is particularly interested in the structural drivers of health inequalities including historical and institutional discrimination and the role of commercial actors in non-communicable disease epidemics. Sarah joined the University of Edinburgh in 2009 having previously worked in research, public health and medicine in New Zealand, the USA, West Africa and the UK.

The authors accomplishments, good and bad experiences, concerns, beliefs and values will resonate among many readers who are public health researchers or practitioners. The book will stimulate, encourage and challenge us to move from research to advocacy and campaigning. Furthermore, regardless of our specific field of research or public health practice, the book will remind us to be always aware and explicit about the values inherent in our professional and personal choices and decisions.

• 1: Katherine Smith, Clare Bambra and Sarah Hill: Background and introduction: UK experiences of health inequalities 2: Mel Bartley and David Blane: Reflections on the legacy of British health inequalities research 3: Espen Dahl and Kjetil A. van der Wel): Nordic health inequalities: patterns, trends and polices 4: Dennis Raphael and Toba Bryant: Reflections on the UK's Legacy of Health Inequalities Research and Policy from a North American Perspective 5: Johanna Hanefeld: Reflections on the UK legacy of health inequities research, from the perspective of low and middle income settings (LMICs) 6: Katherine E. Smith and Kayleigh Garthwaite: Contrasting views on ways forward for health inequalities research 7: Sarah Hill: Axes of health inequalities and intersectionality 8: Margaret Douglas: Beyond 'health': why don't we tackle the cause of health inequalities? 9: Chik Collins, Gerry McCartney and Lisa Garnham: Neoliberalism and Health Inequalities 10: David J. Hunter and Linda Marks: Health Inequalities in England's Changing Public Health System 11: Mark Hellowell and Maximilian Ralston: The Equity Implications of Health System Change in the UK 12: Clare Bambra, Kayleigh Garthwaite, Alison Copeland and Ben Barr: All in it together? Health Inequalities, Welfare Austerity and the 'Great Recession 13: Sarah Hill and Jeff Collin: Industrial epidemics and inequalities: The commercial sector as a structural driver of inequalities in non-communicable diseases 14: Jamie Pearce, Rich Mitchell and Niamh Shortt: Place, space and health inequalities 15: Lynne Friedli: The politics of tackling inequalities: the rise of psychological fundamentalism in public health and welfare reform 16: Eva Elliott, Jennie Popay and Gareth Williams): Knowledge of the everyday: confronting the causes of health inequalities 17: Jane Jones and Cathy McCormack: Socio-structural violence against the poor 18: Ben Barr, Clare Bambra and Katherine Smith: For the good of the cause: generating evidence to inform social policies that reduce health inequalities 19: Katherine Smith, Ellen Stewart, Peter Donnelly and Ben McKendrick: Influencing Policy with Research - Public Health Advocacy and Health Inequalities 20: Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson: The Spirit Level: A Case Study of the Public Dissemination of Health Inequalities Research 21: Katherine Smith, Sarah Hill and Clare Bambra: Conclusion DS where next for advocates, researchers and policymakers trying to tackle health inequalities?