ABSTRACT
Globalisation is fundamentally changing the nature of human interaction. Economic, political, technological, socio-cultural, and environmental changes are having a marked impact upon the nature and intensity of human relations, profoundly challenging many of the boundaries that previously separated us from each other. These boundaries, which include how we perceive and experience physical space and territory (spatial), how we perceive and experience time (temporal), and how we see ourselves and the world around us (cognitive) are being constantly eroded and redefined (Lee 2001). This is no more evident than in the realm of public health, where these changes are creating not only new threats but new opportunities as well. However, one of the key problems is that many of the existing institutions and structures that seek to govern human health remain firmly set within boundaries that derive from a previous era – for example, government ministries that artificially separate health from wider socio-economic considerations, and international organisations that continue to function on the basis of bargaining between nation states and which exclude civil society and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Thus, even though in some contexts there has been a perceptible shift from international to global health (i.e. inclusive of actors other than governments alone), many of the existing institutions and structures are currently ill-equipped to respond effectively to these processes of change.
