Global social medicine

The proposed global network focuses on the neglected field of social medicine and the need to revitalise it as a key field of intersection of social sciences and medicine. The network would rethink its past, analyse its present and re-imagine its future.

As interest has grown in the interdisciplinary potential for medical humanities in recent years, we argue that it is time to bring together a range of groups in different countries who have been articulating a vision of social medicine in which social scientists of health, such as medical sociologists, medical anthropologists, medical geographers and historians of medicine, engage with doctors, medical educators and health policy makers on critical issues of practice and policy.

The primary aims are to organise an international conference bringing together representatives from these diverse groups, launch a global social medicine network, support doctoral student exchanges and visiting professorships between existing centres, and provide support for others wishing to develop such initiatives in their own institutions.