ABSTRACT
Globalization is a complex process, as there is the globalization of “everything” and as “everything” is globalizing. The chapter examines the intricacies of globalization and health as a significant domain where globalization has an enormous impact. Globalization and health are interconnected, in terms of the epidemiology of diseases, healthcare systems and access to healthcare. This chapter conceptualizes globalization and health, examines Ritzer’s globalization of “nothing” and “something”, the confluence of health and globalization, then projects critical and analytical standpoints to describe, analyze and understand the relationship between globalization and health. The first question is: Why the focus on the globalization of health? The chapter also examines the mutual characters of globalization and health as both responsive, transitional, measuring, reflexive, multidimensional and with differential effects in different regions, especially between the Global North and South. The chapter also hints at the narrow conception of global health from the securitization agenda while neglecting the manufactured epidemics and related global concerns.
