Can our economy make us sick? David Stuckler thinks it can. Stuckler is an Oxford University professor whose focus is the intersection of political economy and public health. In 2013, he co-wrote The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills, arguing that some countries have turned recessions into public health disasters in misguided efforts to get the budget back on track.
Stuckler has studied large data sets from across the globe to learn how economic upheavals – from the Great Depression to the collapse of the Soviet Union to the Asian Financial Crisis to the Global Financial Crisis – have affected the health of citizens.
Australia’s economy has held up better than most in recent times, so how do Stuckler’s findings relate to us? And what lessons can Australian policy-makers learn from mistakes made in other countries?
For our first Fifth Estate event in 2016, join Sally Warhaft and a fascinating international guest for a discussion of health and economic upheaval.
Featuring
Sally Warhaft
Sally Warhaft is a Melbourne broadcaster, anthropologist and writer. She is the host of The Fifth Estate, the Wheeler Centre’s live series focusing on journalism, politics, media, and international relations, and The Leap Year ...
David Stuckler
David Stuckler is a Professor of Political Economy and Sociology at University of Oxford and research fellow of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Chatham House. He has written over 140 peer-reviewed scientific articles on global health in The Lancet, British Medical Journal and Nature in addition to other major journals. His book about the global chronic-disease epidemic, Sick Societies, was published by Oxford University Press in 2011. He is also an author of The Body Economic, published by Penguin Press in 2013 and translated into over ten languages.