2020 will be remembered as the year when a ‘simple’ virus affected all spheres of life of very many people, with disastrous consequences all over the world. In essence, the COVID-19 pandemic is an example of how systemic approaches to health and health problems are central not only to health research, but also to policymaking and the development of effective and equitable policies for the challenges we are currently facing in our societies.

ITM’s Ecohealth group is organising a seminar series in which speakers will discuss current challenges such as climate change, globalisation, urbanisation and emerging diseases, and illustrate how systems approaches can be applied to better understand the issues, analyse their root causes and inform solutions.

Register here  to join the Zoom meeting. 

Fourth seminar: 

On 7 December, 2 – 3 pm, Senior Lecturer Stanley Blue will give a talk titled “Movement in the Fields of Flexibility and Obesity: Deterritorialising Social Practices“. He will talk about the practices of everyday life,  and how these are critical for responding to global challenges, including climate change and public health.  

Stanley Blue is a Senior Lecturer in the Sociology Department at Lancaster University. His work traces the reproduction of everyday practices that matter for environmental sustainability and health. His current research examines the flexibility of everyday social practices and the relationships between biology, embodiment, and inheritance, as they matter for the passing on of social practices.

About the Ecohealth group

The Ecohealth group brings together researchers from ITM’s 3 departments, from eco-epidemiology,  infectious disease control, clinical medicine, political science, anthropology and health systems). The group adopts a whole systems approach to making sense of health and health problems. Its starting point is the dynamic interactions between human, social, biological, ecological and political systems and how that affects the health of people. This in turn demands a transdisciplinary approach and the active engagement and participation of key stakeholders in order to co-create solutions for transformative, sustainable and equitable change.