Palgrave Studies in Public Health Policy Research – serie

Governments have known since the 1960s that smoking results in irreversible health damage. This open access book examines why governments have done so little to combat this when they have been aware of the problem and its solutions for decades. What are the strategies and decisions that make a difference, given that policy environments are often not conducive to change? Taking the Netherlands as an example, this book helps to understand the complex policy process at the national level and why it so often appears irrational to us. It is the most sophisticated analysis of tobacco control policy to date, applying insights from political sciences to the field of tobacco control.

"This book is essential reading for researchers of tobacco policy change. Too many studies simply complain that change is too slow because tobacco companies are too powerful and politicians lack the will to challenge them. This book goes much further, to help us understand not just industry strategy but the policy processes in which policy advocates engage, learn from each other, and help create essential global tobacco policy change."Paul Cairney, University of Stirling, UK"This book is rare in making genuinely significant contributions across both public health and policy studies. By focusing on the battle for standardised packs, it engagingly addresses one of the most prominent recent innovations in health policy that has relevance both beyond Europe and across multiple spheres of health policy. In doing so, it also offers an innovative analysis of the role of transnational corporations in policy transfer."Jeff Collin, University of Edinburgh, UKThis book analyses the battle for standardised cigarette packaging (‘plain packaging’) in Europe, drawing on the concepts of multi-level governance and policy transfer. It analyses the strategies of policy makers, non-governmental organisations and transnational tobacco companies in attempting either to advance or to block the introduction of standardised packaging. Taking a global and multi-level approach, it analyses these struggles within European Union institutions, EU member states, and across jurisdictions, as NGOs and tobacco companies worked transnationally to counter each other. As well as presenting original empirical research detailing these policy battles, the book provides new theoretical insights into policy transfer processes, particularly within multi-level polities, showing how transnational corporations can have dramatic effects on these processes. The book will appeal equally to public health researchers, policy analysts and political scientists.

This open access book bridges the divide between political science and public health, whilst simultaneously embracing the complexities and differences of both. Although public health is inherently political, the tools and insights of political science are often ignored in public health scholarship. Bringing together academics and researchers working at the intersection of both, the book demonstrates how integrating these fields can help reconcile the roles of politics and scientific evidence in policymaking. It also highlights the key conceptual, methodological and substantive implications for bridging this divide, and charts a path forward for a movement towards political science with public health. It will be of interest to academics, researchers and students interested in public health, political science, public policy, and the role of scientific evidence in policymaking.

This open access book bridges the divide between political science and public health, whilst simultaneously embracing the complexities and differences of both. Although public health is inherently political, the tools and insights of political science are often ignored in public health scholarship. Bringing together academics and researchers working at the intersection of both, the book demonstrates how integrating these fields can help reconcile the roles of politics and scientific evidence in policymaking. It also highlights the key conceptual, methodological and substantive implications for bridging this divide, and charts a path forward for a movement towards political science with public health. It will be of interest to academics, researchers and students interested in public health, political science, public policy, and the role of scientific evidence in policymaking.

This book explores regulatory conundrums around adolescent sexual health, abortion and assisted reproductive technologies in the UK. In doing so, it seeks to examine the various stages at which women’s reproductive health comes into contact with government action and assesses how these legal and policy fields are shaped through the conceptual lens of policy networks. Transformed expectations of women’s roles, along with developed biological capabilities and understandings of gender and sexuality have driven an increasingly complex politics of sex and reproduction. The book argues that assumed medial control over these issues is overshadowed by government calculations of cost-effectiveness. Moreover, decisions on the design of programmes and levels of access continually reflect traditional family formation. The outcome is unsurprisingly the marginalisation of women in publicly funded healthcare, but with a clear further impact on gender and sex minorities. COVID-19 has disrupted these dynamics further, altering the manner in which previously inhibited patients engage with the NHS. As the pandemic recedes it has become more timely than ever to consider the future of gendered healthcare in the UK, and to question the likelihood of long term change in the ability of patients to inform health policy decisions. The book will appeal to scholars and students of gender and health policy, law and politics, as well as healthcare practitioners.

This book explores regulatory conundrums around adolescent sexual health, abortion and assisted reproductive technologies in the UK. In doing so, it seeks to examine the various stages at which women’s reproductive health comes into contact with government action and assesses how these legal and policy fields are shaped through the conceptual lens of policy networks. Transformed expectations of women’s roles, along with developed biological capabilities and understandings of gender and sexuality have driven an increasingly complex politics of sex and reproduction. The book argues that assumed medial control over these issues is overshadowed by government calculations of cost-effectiveness. Moreover, decisions on the design of programmes and levels of access continually reflect traditional family formation. The outcome is unsurprisingly the marginalisation of women in publicly funded healthcare, but with a clear further impact on gender and sex minorities. COVID-19 has disrupted these dynamics further, altering the manner in which previously inhibited patients engage with the NHS. As the pandemic recedes it has become more timely than ever to consider the future of gendered healthcare in the UK, and to question the likelihood of long term change in the ability of patients to inform health policy decisions. The book will appeal to scholars and students of gender and health policy, law and politics, as well as healthcare practitioners.

This book unpacks policy and politics for health, equity, and wellbeing. With a critical realist lens, the book provides a methodology for sophisticated health focussed policy analysis which situates public health within complex political processes and systems. The application of that lens is demonstrated with insights from a decade of research into urban and regional planning.

This book unpacks policy and politics for health, equity, and wellbeing. With a critical realist lens, the book provides a methodology for sophisticated health focussed policy analysis which situates public health within complex political processes and systems. The application of that lens is demonstrated with insights from a decade of research into urban and regional planning.

Governments have known since the 1960s that smoking results in irreversible health damage. This open access book examines why governments have done so little to combat this when they have been aware of the problem and its solutions for decades. What are the strategies and decisions that make a difference, given that policy environments are often not conducive to change? Taking the Netherlands as an example, this book helps to understand the complex policy process at the national level and why it so often appears irrational to us. It is the most sophisticated analysis of tobacco control policy to date, applying insights from political sciences to the field of tobacco control.

Policy-making in public health is highly complex, which is one reason why the behavioural turn is now playing a significant role in this field. Against this backdrop, this book aims to develop a theoretical understanding of how policymakers take up public health challenges and how policies change over the course of time. Accordingly, the book reveals policy-makers' underlying assumptions, which influence the way in which public policy seeks to promote the health status of citizens. In a second step, the book presents a typology of policy instruments and applies this to the field of health promotion. This typology introduces an option that adds behaviourally informed insights to the toolbox of political analysis. Empirical evidence of behavioural health policies can be found in various countries around the world, and the book presents both relevant country studies and examples from the supra- and international level. Finally, the book discusses the implications of the rise of behavioural health policies, proposes a specific concept of health citizenship and reviews state-citizen relations. The book is useful for academics from health-related disciplines, such as political science, sociology, and public health, as well as for policy-makers, practitioners and students.

The need for policy coherence between trade and health has never been greater, yet few public health workers are equipped to navigate this complex field. This book aims to fill this gap, providing a focused and readable introduction to the topic. It introduces the principles underpinning trade treaties and examines the implications of trade rules for health services and access to medicines, unhealthy commodities, labour rights and the environment. It explores the trade policy making process, methods for trade and health research, and recommendations for strengthening policy coherence.