Network T: Health
The health of individuals and communities is shaped in many ways by socioeconomic and political structures and processes. This interdisciplinary network examines health and medicines from the perspectives of political economy, economic sociology, organizational studies, socioeconomics, and related approaches.
Our network focuses on four interrelated substantive and theoretical areas:
1. Political Economy, Socioeconomics, and the Production of Health and Medicines
This area examines the economic sociology and political economy of medicine, including state- or firm-led development of new drugs in both high- and low-resource communities, social entrepreneurship, and innovations or policies that support positive health outcomes cross-nationally and globally.
2. Organizing and the Organization of Health and Medicines
This area analyzes markets for drugs, medicines, and medical devices; the role of public actors such as national health insurance systems and private actors such as finance and insurance companies; patient-physician relationships and health intermediaries; management of healthcare systems; emerging uses of artificial intelligence in medicine; and the role of patient activists.
3. Pricing and Valuation of Health and Medicines
This area explores issues of value and valuation in health and health products, including pharmaceuticals and treatments, quality of care, financialization, pricing and access to health products, and the contested politics of medical expertise.
4. Public Policy, Healthcare, and Access to Medicines
This area studies the relationship between the state and healthcare, the role of policies in shaping access to medicine, the influence of global institutions such as the World Health Organization, public-private partnerships, and cross-national comparisons of policies addressing the fundamental causes of poor health.
Network T Organizers

Larry Au

Steve Casper

Kathryn Ibata-Arens
