14. Health and Participation: Between History and Current Times

Session 14

Health and Participation: Between History and Current Times

Chair: Norma Felli (Sapienza University of Rome)
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Description
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought health back to the center of the public debate, highlighting its political and social dimensions and the need for a participatory approach to collective well-being.

Contemporary health crises have shown that safeguarding health cannot be limited to technical or institutional spheres alone, but requires the active involvement of multiple political and social actors (Giorgi, 2024). Adopting a historical and interdisciplinary perspective, this session explores the relationship between health and participation through national and international experiences, past and present.

In Italy, since the 1960s and 1970s, various actors (movements, trade unions, workers, citizen groups, experts, patients, etc.) contributed to the renewal of knowledge and care practices, as well as the development of new organizational models for healthcare services. These were experiments that, in 1978, helped lay the foundations for the establishment of the National Health Service (SSN). The objectives of the session are: (a) analysing socio-political processes shaping the evolution of healthcare systems, with particular attention to the main actors and events leading to the 1978’s health reforms in Italy; (b) assessing how health advocacy and participatory practices evolved between the  1970s and the early 2000s, highlighting the impact of civic activism on healthcare governance and decision-making processes; (c) examining contemporary practices of participation and grassroots healthcare, including initiatives such as social clinics and health from below projects, identifying continuities and differences with past mobilizations. The session aims to revisit key historical moments and foster critical reflection on the role of civil society participation in defending and promoting the universal right to health, and in building collective responses to past and present health and social crises.

Contributi:

(Contentious) Grassroots Healthcare in Two Health Crises: Greece and Spain in Comparative Perspective
Stella Christou (Scuola Normale Superiore)

Household vaccine hesitancy, migration background and generational inequalities: expected evidence from administrative data in a large Italian metropolitan area
Silvia Coretti (Sapienza University of Rome)
Co-author: Rocchina Carlucci (Sapienza University of Rome); Valeria Fano (Asl Roma); Giovanni Colaiocco (Asl Roma)

Salute come conquista collettiva, salute come infrastruttura: continuità e rotture nelle pratiche partecipative dalla «non delega» alla Casa di Comunità
Maddalena Crotti (Università di Bologna)
Co-author: Angelo Cartellani (Università di Bologna)

Politicizzare la partecipazione. Salute e cura nella storia di Cittadinanzattiva
Norma Felli (Sapienza Università di Roma)

I conflitti sulla salute negli anni Settanta. Attualità e prospettive
Chiara Giorgi (Sapienza Università di Roma)

The historical rupture and the basaglian legacy: can participation survive between corporatisation and the neoliberal shift?
Luca Negrogno (Istituzione Gian Franco Minguzzi)