The Science and Practice of Public Health

This book presents public health as a method-driven integrative discipline, a dynamic field of science and practice, shaped by the interplay of knowledge, power and ideology. Global in scope and written from the perspective of those engaged in public health policy and implementation, it draws its deepest lessons from diverse, resource-poor settings to generate grounded insights and innovative analytical frameworks for understanding common and complex challenges.

Part one of the book unpacks the definitions and theoretical approaches to public health, including the bio-medical, social, behavioural and questions of political economy as they relate to each other in the era of globalization. The second part takes up disease control programs, illustrating how knowledge of epidemiology, health systems and political context come together to shape the programs and their outcomes. Part three then focuses on the cross-cutting puzzles and problematics of organizing health care and strengthening health systems, including financing, governance, informatics and building learning-adaptive systems in the 21st century.

The book will be useful to students, researchers, and teachers of Public Health, Public Policy, Sociology, Social Work, and Development Studies. This will also be an invaluable companion to policy makers, general administrators, activists in civil society, media persons, and agencies like WHO and other global health institutions as the book will provide a critical understanding of a wide variety of contemporary debates and issues in health policy.