Health insights from leading experts tailored to the Global South

Handbook of Health Communication in The Global South introduces, explores, and discusses Health Communication in the Global South and from a Global South perspective. This Handbook focuses on the scholarship and methodological insights that address topics such as health disparities, tailored health solutions, innovative and community driven strategies, use of digital platforms and technologies that align with local infrastructures, and decolonial perspectives on health communication.

The Handbook invokes the term “Global South” not merely as a geographical, but also as an epistemic position. The term denotes a turn toward other forms of knowing which resist the universalistic pretensions of Western science and hegemonic knowledge systems.

Handbook of Health Communication in The Global South includes information on:

• Non-communicable diseases as the leading cause of death in Asia and Asian regions, with almost 70% of deaths due to cardiovascular diseases, cancers, diabetes, and respiratory diseases
• A co-existence of dual healthcare systems in the Global South—high-quality care for those who can afford it, and under-resourced public healthcare for those who can’t
• The continued influence of colonial rule in the mid-20th century in the definitions and management of health, as well as how it is communicated
• A transition from formula-based health, to a pluriversal approach, where interventions are locally anchored, culturally relevant, and collaboratively owned by the communities Handbook of Health Communication in The Global South is an essential Handbook for students and researchers in the field of public health, media studies, medical anthropology and cultural studies, both from within civil society as well as in the donor community.

Professor Thomas Tufte is a cultural sociologist and media scholar at University of Loughborough, a member of Academia Europaea, and Senior Research Associate with the University of Johannesburg. He has worked with research, teaching, curricular development, consultancy, and NGO work in over 30 countries, and is Director of the ERC Advanced Grant project REACT (Reimagining Activism, Communication and Trajectories Participation).

Vinod Pavarala is Senior Professor and Advisor, School of Digital Media and Communication, at Mahindra University. Before joining Mahindra, he taught for three decades at the Department of Communication, University of Hyderabad. He held the UNESCO Chair on Community Media, the first of its kind globally, for about 14 years, since its establishment in 2011.

Eliza Govender is an Associate Professor in Culture, Communication and Media Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She is a South African National Research Foundation rated researcher, holds an honorary research associate post with the global research centre, CAPRISA and serves as co-chair of the Health Communication Working Group for the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR).