Kaasch, Alexandra Michaela (2011) Global social policy in the field of health systems : international organisations and their policy models. PhD thesis, University of Sheffield.
Abstract
This thesis is a discussion of some fundamental elements of global social policy concepts. The dimension of global social policy that is about the social policy models of global actors has been characterised by primarily referring to pension policy. Analysing global policy ideas of national health systems, this thesis tests to what extent these definitions and concepts of global social policy hold true when taking into account policy models other than for pension policy. The analysis focuses on a number of international (inter-governmental) organisations that appear as global social policy actors in the field of health systems, most notably the World Health Organisation (WHO), the World Bank, the International Labour Organisation (lLO) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Based primarily on a detailed document analysis, the thesis is structured to study, and to compare, the organisations' mandates as global health actors, the models for health systems developed by these organisations, and their communication channels. The characterisations of the global policy models of health systems are then compared to those for pension systems and related to more general understandings of global social policy. The key arguments developed in this thesis are that (l) not all social policy fields are characterised by the same structures and processes; that (2) not all social policy fields are about competition and contestations, but for models of health systems, we find a significant degree of similarity between the models promulgated by international organisations; and that (3) global social policy analysis would benefit from more nuanced ways of understanding the nature of its actors, the specifics of its ideas and concepts, and the implications of different communication channels.
Metadata
Awarding institution: | University of Sheffield |
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Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Sociological Studies (Sheffield) |
Identification Number/EthosID: | uk.bl.ethos.543297 |
Depositing User: | EThOS Import Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 23 Nov 2016 11:56 |
Last Modified: | 23 Nov 2016 11:56 |
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