Reducing Inequalities in Europe: The Limits of Multisectoral Policies
In the wake of overlapping environmental, socioeconomic and health crises, recent years have seen a growing interest in cross-cutting policy agendas to reduce multi-faceted inequalities across Europe. But despite speaking of ‘Inclusive Growth’, ‘Health in All Policies’, or ‘Levelling Up’, policymakers have not moved beyond vaguely defined agendas to yield meaningful results
In two new books, Public Policy to Reduce Inequalities Across Europe: Hope Versus Reality (Cairney, Kippin, St. Denny, Keating) and The Politics of Health Promotion in the European Union (Godziewski), the authors examine some of the institutional, material, but also discursive reasons for this under-performance. The first book explores the spread of policymaking responsibilities across levels of government, and in numerous sectoral approaches. The latter tracks a tendency for a high rhetorical commitment to health equity to be undermined in practice.
This event is hosted by the Department of International Politics and the Centre for International Policy Studies at City, University of London.
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Bios
Presenters: Prof Paul Cairney (University of Stirling); Dr Sean Kippin (University of Stirling); Dr Charlotte Godziewski (City, University of London).
Discussants: Dr Eleanor Brooks (University of Edinburgh); Prof John Boswell (University of Southampton).
Prof Paul Cairney is Professor of Politics and Public Policy, University of Stirling, UK (@Cairneypaul). His research interests are in comparative public policy, policy analysis, and policy theories, applied to UK and devolved government policy, and the use of evidence in policy and policymaking.
Dr Sean Kippin is a Lecturer in Public Policy at the University of Stirling, where he has worked since 2019. He has also held roles at the London School of Economics and the University of the West of Scotland. He is co-author of the 2022 Oxford University Press book Public Policy to Reduce Inequalities Across Europe: Hope Versus Reality and the forthcoming Bristol University Press textbook Policy and Policymaking in the UK, as well as a number of articles on UK politics and policymaking.
Dr Charlotte Godziewski is a Lecturer in International Politics at City, University of London. Her research explores the politics of health, with a current empirical focus on the EU. Her doctoral thesis was awarded the 2021 Best PhD Thesis Prize by the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES). Dr Godziewski is a coordinator of ‘EUHealthGov’, the UACES-funded research network on EU Health Governance.
Dr Eleanor Brooks is a Lecturer in Health Policy at the Global Health Policy Unit (GHPU), School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh. She holds a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship for the period 2020-2024, supporting the Better Regulation for Better Health project. Dr Brooks is a Scientific Advisor to European Public Health Alliance, coordinator UACES Research Network on EU Health Governance and member of the Young Gastein Forum.
Prof John Boswell is Professor of Politics at the University of Southampton. His work looks at democratic governance, public policy, and public administration. Prof Boswell is a co-editor of the Routledge Series in Democratic Crisis and co-convenes specialist groups in critical policy analysis for the ECPR and APSA. He is one of the co-directors of the Centre for Political Ethnography at Southampton.