Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Focuses on the rationales and institutional arrangements needed for collective action to address the health impacts arising from globalization. Using case studies, the course provides understanding of the practical challenges of policy making and diplomacy in a global context. The roles and limitations of key institutional actors and governance instruments are assessed, along with emerging forms of global health governance as collective action responses to global health needs.

COURSE DETAILS:

This course consists of 13 sessions.  The first 2 sessions will cover key concepts and frameworks for analysing and measuring globalization and its health impacts.  The next 3 sessions examine transboundary flows caused by globalization and the governance challenges arising from them.  This is followed by 2 sessions on how these flows impact on communicable and non-communicable diseases, and the need for collective action to address them.  The course concludes with 6 sessions on existing and emerging institutional arrangements for global health governance.  Each session is a mixture of lectures, class exercises and group presentations.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

By completing the requirements of this course, it is anticipated that students will be prepared to:

1.     Define the concept of globalization, its distinct features, and its varied impacts on population health;
2.     Critically appraise how the concept of globalization is variably used within the scholarly and policy communities;
3.     Explain the causal links between globalization and its health impacts, and how one might measure them;
4.     Identify the governance challenges arising from these health impacts and the role of global health diplomacy in addressing them; and
5.     Critically assess the interests, ideas and institutional arrangements that comprise existing and emerging forms of global health governance.

Grading

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

There is no required textbook assigned for this course given the broad scope of topics covered.  Instead, the required and recommended readings will largely be made available electronically via the SFU Library.  For most journal articles, the URL has been provided to enable you to readily access them on-line.  Open access materials have been selected where possible.  For some sessions, book chapters have been assigned as readings and copies of those books are available through the SFU Library Catalogue Reserves List.  You may borrow these for a designated period for photocopying and/or reading.  Links to additional materials will be provided through Canvas.

The readings for each weekly session are divided into Required Readings and Recommended Readings.  You should read all Required Readings BEFORE each relevant session and be prepared to participate in discussing them.  The Recommended Readings are available to provide you with a fuller understanding of the session’s topic if, for example, you decide to write your Mid Term Essay or Policy Brief on that topic.