Abstract

There is growing evidence of the wide-ranging impacts of corporations in selected industries on global patterns of health and disease. However, limited analysis has been undertaken of the increasing corporate involvement in collective action needed to effectively address these impacts.

This book brings together a wide ranging collection of case studies that provide new empirical research on how corporations impact on, influence of, and could be held more accountable to, global health governance. Written by leading and emerging scholars from a broad range of disciplinary perspectives, each case study seeks to expand the methods, conceptual approaches and sources of data used to address three key questions:

• What impacts are corporations having on global health governance?
• How do corporations shape and influence global health governance in ways that protect and promote their own interests?
• What forms of global health governance are needed to mediate these corporate impacts in ways that protect and promote population health?

Also, for a practical guide on how to conduct research on the impact of corporations on global health and global health governance, see the partner volume: http://www.rowmaninternational.com/books/researching-corporations-and-global-health-governance
Nora Kenworthy is an Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing and Health Studies at the University of Washington Bothell.

Ross MacKenzie is a lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia

Kelley Lee is Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Global Health Governance and Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Canada.
It is hard to overstate the profound influence of international corporations on global health—from tobacco, alcohol and food to injuries and occupational safety. The most fundamental problem in a globalized world is how to govern corporations and hold them accountable. In their brilliant book, Kenworthy, MacKenzie and Lee unmask the influence corporations have on human health and offer innovative solutions for transparency and good governance. If scholars and health advocates want to truly understand the complex intersection between corporations and health, this book is essential reading.
Lawrence O. Gostin, Director, World Health Organization Collaborating Center on Public Health Law & Human Rights