Main description:

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a renewed interest in the relationship between public health authorities and the public. Particular attention has been paid to 'problem publics' who do not follow health advice. This is not a new issue. As the chapters in this collection demonstrate, the designation of certain groups or populations as problem publics has long been a part of health policy and practice. By exploring the creation and management of these problem publics in a range of time periods and geographical locations, the collection sheds light on what is both specific and particular. For health authorities, publics themselves were often thought to pose problems, because of their behaviour, identity or location. But publics could and did resist this framing. There were, and continue to be, many problems with seeing publics as problems. -- .

Contents:

Introduction: publics and their health - historical problems and perspectives - Alex Mold, Peder Clark and Hannah J. Elizabeth
1 'Democracy trains its microscope' on public health: intergovernmental relations, competing publics and negotiations at the grassroots - Jennifer Gunn
2 'Dumping grounds for... human waste': containing problem populations in post-war British public health policy, 1945-74 - Michael Lambert
3 Socialism, health and the politics of identity: conversations from East Germany's AIDS crisis - Johanna Folland
4 Forgoing fat: food choice, disease prevention and the role of the food industry in health promotion in England, 1980-92 - Jane Hand
5 At the borders of the public: immigrant and migrant publics and the right to health - Beatrix Hoffman
6 The emergence of violence as a public health problem in Argentina - Martin Hernan Di Marco
Afterword: from Asiatic cholera to COVID-19 - the many publics of modern public health - Tom Crook
Index -- .