ABSTRACT
The history of globalisation is one of contradiction, politics, and protests. Alongside the benefits of globalisation that we unthinkingly take advantage of, from the opportunities for social networking to the growing range of products we consume, there are negative externalities (Barnett et al. 2008; Kelly 1999). In 2011, the implications of economic globalisation came to the fore as we witnessed the Occupy protesters in the West reject the economic system that allows wealth to be monopolised by an elite minority, we saw residents of Greece act out in rejection of the austerity measures deemed necessary to keep their economy afloat on a global stage, while worsening food security and dissatisfaction were a factor in the social media-facilitated Arab Spring that spread across the Middle East (Breisinger et al. 2011). The human cost of globalisation is increasingly occupying the public consciousness. In this chapter, we focus on health as one of the few hard indicators we have of the impacts of globalisation on the quality of life of individuals. We examine how global economic forces are shaping health and health care and the progress geographers have made in examining these relationships. We begin our discussion by delving into the contested nature of globalisation and its importance to debates on development.
