The Politics of the Commercial Determinants of Health

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Background

Understanding the international and domestic politics of the commercial determinants of health is a new area of scholarly inquiry. Perhaps more than ever, the political science, policy, and public health community needs to better understand the complex political contexts shaping the rise and policy influence of the commercial industry, ranging from tobacco to alcohol, agribusiness, and food products.

Initial efforts to address the commercial sector’s political and policy involvement emerged with the corporate political activity literature, which mainly focused on the tobacco industry’s efforts to shape noncommunicable disease (NCD) policy. Over the years, public health practitioners, nutrition and social scientists have built upon this existing literature to expand beyond the tobacco industry, looking, for example, at food and nutrition, and alcohol policy in several upper- and lower-middle income countries. With the arrival of several innovative NCD policies throughout the world, such as soda taxes and food warning labels, coupled with increased international attention through multilateral agencies like the World Health Organization, we have now reached a critical juncture in scholarly interest and attention to this topic.

In this call for papers, we seek contributions to this growing area of research in political science and public health policy. Some areas of research for this Research Topic may include the following: the politics of international and/or multilateral health organizations and their role in the commercial determinants of health; the role of political and bureaucratic institutions in shaping the context for the commercial industry’s political activities and policy influence; the rise and effectiveness of the commercial industry’s political strategies in obstructing/interfering public health efforts; and finally, the role of civil societal activists, philanthropic and academic researchers, at the international and domestic level in counteracting these commercial industries' actions. We are also interested in submissions that address the commercial sector’s political and policy adaptations in response to the COVID 19 pandemic. We particularly welcome work from lower-middle income countries.

Keywords: commercial determinants of health, noncommunicable disease policy, alcohol policy, food policy, public health policy

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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