Problematizing the “global” in global health: An assessment of the global discourse of safety

Abstract

The practice of global health assumes that there are no differences between what is decided at a global level of policy making and what is implemented at a given local level. However, this research reveals a marked disconnect between the normative assumptions and understandings of global health and their appropriateness for local level implementation. The normative discourse of safety, embedded in global health, provides a case example by which to critically examine the importance of recognizing the differences between global and local understandings of health. The lack of a hegemonic understanding of safety and the dangers and risks that are generated when imposing foreign understandings of safety onto local levels, serve to problematize the ethnocentric assumptions embedded in the discourse of global health.