Decolonizing Global Health

This insightful work uses a critical realist perspective to unpack the colonially informed culture, structures, and mechanisms which exist across global health institutions, offering a vision for radical change through a process of decolonization.

Shedding light on the institutional structures that perpetuate and sustain long-standing power imbalances in global health research and practice, post-colonial critical realism provides a cogent, meta-theoretical basis for understanding colonialism and decolonization. It reveals these structures as social constructions rather than naturally occurring phenomena. In astutely examining a range of factors, from the language of global health to the principles and practice of research in this field, the book identifies not only the role that colonialism continues to play, but also the means by which it can be subverted.

Written by a prominent author in this important field of study, this book will be key reading for students and scholars from public health to medicine, as well as philosophy, anthropology, and development studies.

Author Biography

Ferdinand C. Mukumbang is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Global Health, University of Washington, US. He is a public health scientist specializing in health policy and systems research, with a specific focus on implementation sciences. He is particularly interested in the development and adoption of realist-informed research methods for evidence-based theorizing in health care and global health. He actively champions the decolonization of global health, striving to dismantle systemic inequities and promote equitable healthcare access worldwide.