Michael Harvey is with the Department of Health Services Administration and Policy, College of Public Health, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA.
Am J Public Health. 2021 Feb;111(2):293-300. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2020.305996. Epub 2020 Dec 22.
The "political economy of health" is concerned with how political and economic domains interact and shape individual and population health outcomes. However, the term is variously defined in the public health, medical, and social science literatures.This could result in confusion about the term and its associated tradition, thereby constituting a barrier to its application in public health research and practice.To address these issues, I survey the political economy of health tradition, clarify its specifically Marxian theoretical legacy, and discuss its relevance to understanding and addressing public health issues. I conclude by discussing the benefits of employing critical theories of race and racism with Marxian political economy to better understand the roles of class exploitation and racial oppression in epidemiological patterning.
“卫生的政治经济学”关注的是政治和经济领域如何相互作用并影响个人和人群的健康结果。然而,该术语在公共卫生、医学和社会科学文献中有不同的定义。这可能导致人们对该术语及其相关传统产生混淆,从而成为在公共卫生研究和实践中应用该术语的障碍。为了解决这些问题,我调查了卫生的政治经济学传统,澄清了其特有的马克思主义理论遗产,并讨论了其对理解和解决公共卫生问题的相关性。最后,我讨论了运用马克思主义政治经济学的种族和种族主义批判理论来更好地理解阶级剥削和种族压迫在流行病学模式中的作用的好处。