Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T11:31:06.624Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Orders of worth and the moral conceptions of health in global politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 July 2016

Tine Hanrieder
Tine Hanrieder*
Affiliation:
Senior Researcher, Department of Global Governance, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, Germany
*
E-mail: tine.hanrieder@wzb.eu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The article analyzes the contested concept of global health through the lens of orders of worth. Drawing on pragmatist political and social theory, especially the work of Boltanski and Thévenot, I conceptualize orders of worth as moral narratives that connect visions of universal humankind to ideas about moral worth and deficiency. They thereby differ from the self/other narrative of political identity that is emphasized in International Relations scholarship. Orders of worth do not pitch a particularistic identity against foreign identities, but tie collective identity to a higher common good. They provide tools for moral evaluation and the justification of hierarchy. I use this heuristic to reconstruct four main conceptions of health in global politics: The order of survival, the order of fairness, the order of production, and the order of spirit. Each of them articulates a distinct political identity, as ‘we species’, ‘we liberals’, ‘we bodies’ and ‘we souls’, and implies different notions of virtuous and selfish conduct in the global community. These orders are derived from scholarly writings and the policies of global health institutions. Finally, I discuss the nature of compromises between the four orders regarding contested issues such as health emergencies or digital medicine.

Keywords

pragmatismglobal healthorders of worthhealth ethicsidentityvaluation sociology
Type
Original Papers
Information
International Theory , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , November 2016 , pp. 390 - 421
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abramowitz, Sharon Alane, Kevin Louis, Bardosh, Melissa, Leach, Barry, Hewlett, Mark, Nichter, and Nguyen, Vinh-Kim. 2015. “Social Science Intelligence in the Global Ebola Response.” The Lancet 385(9965):330.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Adler, Emanuel, and Pouliot, Vincent. 2011. “International Practices.” International Theory 3(1):1–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adler-Nissen, Rebecca. 2014. “Stigma Management in International Relations: Transgressive Identities, Norms, and Order in International Society.” International Organization 68(1):143–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Benedict. 1983. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Banerjee, Abhijit V., and Duflo, Esther. 2011. Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty. New York, NY: Public Affairs.Google Scholar
Bartelson, Jens. 2009. Visions of World Community. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benford, Robert D., and Snow, David A.. 2000. “Framing Processes and Social Movements: An Overview and Assessment.” Annual Review of Sociology 26:611–639.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boltanski, Luc. 2011. On Critique: A Sociology of Emancipation. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Boltanski, Luc, and Chiapello, Eve. 2006. Der neue Geist des Kapitalismus. Konstanz: UVK.Google Scholar
Boltanski, Luc, and Thévenot, Laurent. 1999. “The Sociology of Critical Capacity.” European Journal of Social Theory 2(3):359–377.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boltanski, Luc, and Thévenot, Laurent. 2006. On Justification: Economies of Worth. Princeton, NJ and Oxford: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, David. 1992. Writing Security: United States Foreign Policy and the Politics of Identity. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Carpenter, Daniel. 2012. “Is Health Politics Different?” Annual Review of Political Science 15:287–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
C.A.S.E. Collective. 2006. “Critical Approaches to Security in Europe: A Networked Manifesto.” Security Dialogue 37(4):443–487.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Commission on Macroeconomics and Health (CMH). 2001. Macroeconomics and Health: Investing in Health for Economic Development. Report by the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health. Geneva: World Health Organization.Google Scholar
Commission on Social Determinants of Health. 2008. Closing the Gap in a Generation. Health Equity Through Action on the Social Determinants of Health. Geneva: World Health Organization.Google Scholar
Conrad, Peter, and Schneider, Joseph W.. 1980. Deviance and Medicalization: From Badness to Sickness. St. Louis, MO: Mosby.Google Scholar
Cueto, Marcos. 2004. “The Origins of Primary Health Care and Selective Primary Health Care.” American Journal of Public Health 94(11):1864–1874.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
D’Aoust, Anne-Marie. 2014. “Ties That Bind? Engaging Emotions, Governmentality and Neoliberalism: Introduction to the Special Issue.” Global Society 28(3):267–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, Sara., Elbe, Stefan, Howell, Alison, and McInnes., Colin 2014. “Global Health in International Relations: Editors’ Introduction.” Review of International Studies 40(5):825–834.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dielemann, Joseph L., Graves, Casey, Johnson, Elizabeth, Templin, Tara, Birger, Maxwell, Hamavid, Hannah, Freeman, Michael, Leach-Kemon, Katherine, Singh, Lavanya, Haakenstad, Annie, and Murray, Christopher J. L.. 2015. “Sources and Focus of Health Development Assistance, 1990–2014.” JAMA 313(23):2359–2368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eckhoff, Philip A., and Tatem, Andrew J.. 2015. “Digital Methods in Epidemiology Can Transform Disease Control.” International Health 7(2):77–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Elbe, Stefan. 2009. Virus Alert: Security, Governmentality, and the AIDS Pandemic. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elbe, Stefan. 2010. Security and Global Health: Toward the Medicalization of Insecurity. Cambridge, UK: Polity.Google Scholar
Farmer, Paul. 2003. Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Fidler, David P. 2004a. “Constitutional Outlines of Public Health’s ‘New World Order’.” Temple Law Review 77:247–290.Google Scholar
Fidler, David P. 2004b. SARS, Governance and the Globalization of Disease. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1989. The Birth of the Clinic: An Archeology of Medical Perception. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1991. “Governmentality.” In The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, edited by Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon, and Peter Miller, 87–104. London, Toronto, Sydney, Tokyo and Singapore: Harvester Wheatsheaf.Google Scholar
Friedman, Eric A. 2016. “Beyond Cost-Effectiveness: Why We Need a Human Rights Approach to Universal Health Coverage.” Written with Lawrence O. Gostin. O’Neill Institute Blog, February 4. Accessed May 6, 2016. http://www.oneillinstituteblog.org/beyond-cost-effectiveness-why-we-need-a-human-rights-approach-to-universal-health-coverage/.Google Scholar
Gallie, Walter B. 1956. “Essentially Contested Concepts.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society. New Series 56:167–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garrett, Laurie. 1994. The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Google Scholar
Garrett, Laurie, and Fidler, David P.. 2007. “Sharing H5N1 Viruses to Stop a Global Influenza Pandemic.” PLoS Medicine 4(11):1712–1714.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goffman, Erving. 1974. Frame Analysis. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Gostin, Lawrence O. 2014. Global Health Law. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammond, Edward. 2009. “Indonesia Fights to Change WHO Rules on Flu Vaccines.” Grain, April 18. Accessed March 11, 2014. http://www.grain.org/article/entries/761-indonesia-fights-to-change-who-rules-on-flu-vaccines.Google Scholar
Hanrieder, Tine. 2011. “The False Promise of the Better Argument.” International Theory 3(3):390–415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanrieder, Tine. 2017. “The Public Valuation of Religion in Global Health Governance: Spiritual Health and the Faith Factor.” Contemporary Politics 23(1) (forthcoming).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanrieder, Tine, and Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian. 2014. “WHO Decides on the Exception? Securitization and Emergency Governance in Global Health.” Security Dialogue 45(4):331–348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holbrooke, Richard, and Garrett, Laurie. 2008. “‘Sovereignty’ That Risks Global Health.” The Washington Post, August 10. Accessed March 11, 2014. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/08/AR2008080802919.html.Google Scholar
Howell, Alison. 2012. “Toward an International Political Sociology of Health and Medicine.” International Political Sociology 6(3):315–333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howell, Alison. 2014. “The Global Politics of Medicine: Beyond Global Health, Against Securitisation Theory.” Review of International Studies 40(5):961–987.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutchison, Emma, and Bleiker, Roland. 2014. “Theorizing Emotions and World Politics.” International Theory 6(3):419–514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Illich, Ivan. 1976. Medical Nemesis: The Expropriation of Health. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Inoue, Keiko, and Drori, Gili S.. 2006. “The Global Institutionalization of Health as a Social Concern. Organizational and Discursive Trends.” International Sociology 21(2):199–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kamradt-Scott, Adam. 2011. “The Evolving WHO: Implications for Global Health Security.” Global Public Health 6(8):801–813.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keck, Margaret, and Sikkink, Kathryn. 1998. Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Kenny, Katherine E. 2015. “The Biopolitics of Global Health: Life and Death in Neoliberal Time.” Journal of Sociology 51(1):9–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kickbusch, Ilona. 2003. “The Lesson of SARS: A Wake-Up Call for Global Health.” New York Times, April 29. Accessed March 12, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/29/opinion/29iht-edIlona_ed3_.html.Google Scholar
Klotz, Audie, and Lynch, Cecelia M.. 2007. Strategies for Research in Constructivist International Relations. Armonk, NY and London: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Kornprobst, Markus. 2011. “The Agent’s Logics of Action: Defining and Mapping Political Judgement.” International Theory 3(1):70–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krebs, Ronald R. 2015. “How Dominant Narratives Rise and Fall: Military Conflict, Politics, and the Cold War Consensus.” International Organization 69(4):809–845.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lafaye, Claudette, and Thévenot, Laurent. 1993. “Une Justification écologique? Conflits dans l’aménagement de la Nature.” Revue Française de Sociologie 34(4):493–524.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamont, Michèle. 2012. “Toward a Comparative Sociology of Valuation and Evaluation.” Annual Review of Sociology 38:201–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGilvray, James C. 1981. The Quest for Health and Wholeness. Tübingen: German Institute for Medical Missions Tübingen.Google Scholar
McInnes, Colin, Adam, Kamradt-Scott, Kelley, Lee, Anne, Roemer-Mahler, Simon, Rushton, and Williams, Owain D.. 2014. The Transformation of Global Health Governance. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McInnes, Colin, and Rushton, Simon. 2014. “Health for Health’s Sake, Winning for God’s Sake: US Global Health Diplomacy and Smart Power in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Review of International Studies 40(5):835–857.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKeown, Thomas. 1976. The Role of Medicine: Dream, Mirage, or Nemesis? London: Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust.Google Scholar
Mearsheimer, John J. 2001. The Tragedy of Great Power Politics. London: W.W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar
Miles, Tom. 2015. “States Could be Sanctioned for Public Health Failings: WHO Boss.” Reuters, October 20. Accessed November 2, 2015. http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/20/us-health-who-chan-idUSKCN0SE29S20151020.Google Scholar
Murray, Chris J. L., Lopez, Alan D., and Jamison, Dean T.. 1994. “The Global Burden of Disease in 1990: Summary Results, Sensitivity Analysis and Future Directions.” Bulletin of the World Health Organization 72(3):495–509.Google ScholarPubMed
Neumann, Iver B. 1996. “Self and Other in International Relations.” European Journal of International Relations 2(2):139–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pargament, Kenneth I., Koenig, Harold G., and Perez, Lisa M.. 2000. “The Many Methods of Religious Coping: Development and Initial Validation of the RCOPE.” Journal of Clinical Psychology 56(4):519–543.3.0.CO;2-1>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Payne, Rodger A. 2001. “Persuasion, Frames and Norm Construction.” European Journal of International Relations 7(1):37–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Platon. 1985. Der Staat (Politeia). Platons Werke von Friedrich Schleiermacher. Berlin: Akademie Verlag. Accessed November 4, 2015. http://www.alexandria.de/Autoren_und_Werke/Platon/Platon-Der_Staat-Politeia.pdf.Google Scholar
Pogge, Thomas W. 2002. World Poverty and Human Rights. Cambridge, MA: Polity.Google Scholar
Pogge, Thomas W. 2005. “Human Rights and Global Health: A Research Program.” Metaphilosophy 36(1/2):182–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price-Smith, Andrew T. 2009. Contagion and Chaos: Disease, Ecology, and National Security in the Era of Globalization. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Reubi, David. 2012. “Making a Human Right to Tobacco Control: Expert and Advocacy Networks, Framing and the Right to Health.” Global Public Health 7(Supplement 2):S176–S190.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rorty, Richard. 1979. Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Rorty, Richard. 1989. Contingency, Irony and Solidarity. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sedyaningsih, Endang R., Isfandari, Siti, Soendoro, Triono, and Supari, Siti Fadilah. 2008. “Towards Mutual Trust, Transparency and Equity in Virus Sharing Mechanism: The Avian Influenza Case of Indonesia.” Annals Academy of Medicine 37(6):482–488.Google ScholarPubMed
Shakman Hurd, Elizabeth. 2015. Beyond Religious Freedom: The New Global Politics of Religion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Thaler, Richard H., and Sunstein, Cass R.. 2009. Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wellbeing and Happiness. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Wagner, Peter. 1999. “After Justification: Repertoires of Evaluation and the Sociology of Modernity.” European Journal of Social Theory 2(3):341–357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, Rob B.J. 1993. Inside/Outside: International Relations as Political Theory. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Walzer, Michael. 1983. Spheres of Justice: A Defense of Pluralism and Equality. New York, NY: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Weir, Lorna, and Mykhalovskiy, Eric. 2010. Global Public Health Vigilance: Creating a World on Alert. New York, NY: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, Hayden V. 1973. Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe. Baltimore, MD and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (WHO). 1999. The World Health Report 1999: Making a Difference. Geneva: World Health Organization.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (WHO). 2006. Constitution of the World Health Organization. Geneva: World Health Organization Accessed August 11, 2010. www.who.int/governance/eb/who_constitution_en.pdf.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (WHO). 2010. Health Systems Financing: The Path to Universal Coverage. World Health Report 2010. Geneva: World Health Organization.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (WHO). 2015. Digital Health for the End TB Strategy – An Agenda for Action. Geneva: World Health Organization.Google Scholar
World Bank. 1993. World Development Report 1993: Investing in Health. Oxford, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
World Faiths Development Dialogue. 2012. Global Health and Africa: Assessing Faith Work and Research Priorities. Washington, DC: World Faiths Development Dialogue. Accessed November 4, 2015. http://repository.berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/GlobalHealthandAfricaWFDDEdition.pdf.Google Scholar
Worsnop, Catherine. 2016. “Domestic Politics and the WHO’s International Health Regulations: Explaining the Use of Excessive Barriers During Disease Outbreaks.” Working Paper, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Youde, Jeremy. 2008. “Is Universal Access to Antiretroviral Drugs an Emerging International Norm?” Journal of International Relations and Development 11(4):415–440.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Youde, Jeremy. 2010. Biopolitical Surveillance and Public Health in International Politics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zacher, Mark W., and Keefe, Tanja J.. 2008. The Politics of Global Health Governance: United by Contagion. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar