A critical political economy of health movements

Thursday 24 February 

5pm (GMT)/6pm (CET)

Mònica Clua-Losada (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley) 

Olatz Ribera-Almandoz (CIDOB: Barcelona Centre for International Affairs)

Mary Naughton (University College Dublin)

Mònica Clua-Losada and Olatz Ribera-Almandoz will discuss their recent paper, ‘Health movements in the age of austerity: rescaling resistance in Spain and the United Kingdom‘.

The paper analyses the rescaling strategies implemented in public health services in Spain and the UK during the current economic crisis, and contributes to the understanding of the scalar dynamics and strategies of two social struggles against the privatisation of hospitals and health centres in these two contexts: Marea Blanca (White Tide) in Madrid and Keep Our NHS Public in Greater Manchester. It argues that social movements are more successful when they exploit scale shifts to transform institutions into centres of resistance.

This will be followed by reflections from Mary Naughton on the critical political economy of health care and resistance, and beyond, that the paper raises. 

Followed by an open discussion.

We are very pleased to have such excellent speakers join us.

Monica Clua-Losada is a Professor at the Department of Political Science at the University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley. Her research focuses on Critical Political Economy (CPE) and the role of subaltern groups, with a focus on labour in the context of authoritarian neoliberalism. As well as being an earlier convenor of the the CPERN board and currently co-editor-in-chief of the new journal, Global Political Economy.

Olatz Ribera-Almandoz is a Associate Researcher at CIDOB (Barcelona Centre for International Affairs) in the area of migration. She is also a member of the Johns Hopkins University – Universitat Pompeu Fabra Public Policy Center. Her research focuses on the interactions between social agents and public institutions in the context of multilevel states, with a special focus on migration and asylum policies and the (new) demands of social justice, welfare and housing. She recently completed a PhD in Political and Social Sciences at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona).

Mary Naughton is based at UCD, where she works with the ERC project: Labour Politics and the EU’s New Economic Governance Regime. She recently published, ‘Mobilising societal power: Understanding public support for nursing strikes‘, in the Industrial Relations Journal.

We look forward to seeing you there!