ABSTRACT
Contemporary organizing of health across the globe has been constituted under the framework of globalization, marked by the rapid shrinking of time and space and by the accelerated movement of labor, capital, and resources across global boundaries (Navarro, 2007). Globalization as we know it today has been driven by the political and economic rationality of neoliberal organizing that celebrates individual responsibility, self-care, empowerment, and self-help, accompanied by the minimized role of the state in the delivery of welfare; deregulation of labor, environment, and finance; and stimulation of global commerce and investments through minimization of regulations, tariffs, and subsidies (Brown & Baker, 2012; Dutta, 2008, 2011; Harvey, 2005; Navarro, 2007; Shugart, 2010). Neoliberalism refers to a complex web of political and economic thought that considers at its heart the principle of the free market as a driving mechanism for political, economic, and social organizing (Harvey, 2003, 2005), and, therefore, constructs governance in the image of the free market based on an “individualist micro-economic model” (Bourdieu, 1998, p. 9). Under the narrative of the free market, human potential is maximized when the limits imposed by the state are minimized, thus enabling a catalytic climate for growth, productivity, and efficiency.
