Centring marginalisation for effective and just public health policy and practice

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Verina Wild
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research ; Public Health, Healthcare Research, Social and Occupational Medicine
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 523311202

Marginalisation is a social determinant of health and can be influenced through health policy and practice design. According to the German Robert Koch-Institute, people can be marginalised by being pushed to the margins of society by economic, social, geographic, or cultural structures, leading to a loss of resources, influence and status. Over the last years, a growing body of empirical and conceptual work has been focussing on the implications of marginalisation in the context of public health. Research is being conducted on this or related concepts, such as ‘othering’ and ‘vulnerabilities’ with a special focus on migrants as marginalised populations in the German public health domain. However, there is a need for further empirical and normative analysis and better translation into effective and equitable health policy and practice. Gaps exist especially in the recognition of the various factors that contribute to marginalisation in public health also with regard to intersectionally relevant dynamics such as dealing with ableism, racism, sexism or classism. The proposed research project is situated within the discipline of public health ethics, with a special focus on effective and just public health policy and practice. In this project we aim to 1) Reconstruct underlying normative assumptions about the ‘gen-eral public’ in public health policy and identify who is thereby left out, 2) Gain insights into how ‘marginalisation’ is perceived in public health policy and practice and what is being suggested to overcome it, 3) Explore how ‘marginalisation’ is experienced by affected groups and what are their needs, 4) Further develop or reconceptualise understanding of marginalisation and identify mechanisms of exclusion, and 5) Develop strategies to integrate an empirically and normatively rich understanding of marginalisation into public health policy and practice. Our work programme includes screening policy documents and grey literature and con-ducting a review of academic literature. We will conduct a qualitative interview study in which we will interview four groups: Individuals from marginalised groups, representatives of NGOs and social welfare organisations, public health researchers, and public health officials. We will conduct an empirically informed normative analysis, using major frameworks and theories from public health ethics, feminist theory and social epistemology. The project builds upon preliminary research on unheard voices in public health policy dur-ing the pandemic, during which we also conducted qualitative interviews. The involved research-ers are experts in the fields of public health/epidemiology, and public health ethics (with a special focus on vulnerability and justice).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Cristian Timmermann