Popular health

Researching people-centered health policy and social medicine

The Popular Health research stream at the Zetkin Forum adopts a comprehensive, people-centered approach to health policy and social medicine, examining historical and contemporary experiences across diverse contexts. Our work bridges historical research, engagement with social movements, and collaborative health campaigns, fostering dialogue between researchers, health professionals, and community organisations.

Research focus

1. Socialist Praxis and Health Policy

Our research delves into historical experiences of health policy under socialist systems, analysing how these models prioritised preventative care, public health infrastructure, and socialised medicine. This includes studies such as “Socialism is the Best Prophylaxis”, which examines the German Democratic Republic’s (GDR) healthcare model as an alternative to profit-driven systems.

2. Health Organising and Social Movements

We actively engage with contemporary and historical social movements that have shaped health policy. Beyond academic research, we support popular health campaigns in collaboration with movements like the People’s Health Movement (PHM), promoting public and social medicine as an alternative to commodified healthcare.

Key areas of focus include:

  • The role of health professionals in political organising, such as the Médecine pour le Peuple (Belgium).
  • The Brazilian Popular Health Agents initiative, led by the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), which became national policy in 2023 after proving crucial during the COVID-19 crisis.
  • International collaboration among health activists to advance community-led healthcare models.

Publications and interviews

1. Key Studies and Reports

  • “Socialism is the Best Prophylaxis” – Examining how the GDR’s health system prioritised preventive care, public provision, and medical collectivism as a means of improving population health.
  • Interviews with Historical Public Health Figures (IFDDR interviews) – First-hand accounts from policymakers and practitioners who shaped health systems under socialist governance.
  • ➤ Health as Resistance: A Palestinian Perspective (People’s Dispatch) – An interview with contemporary activists discussing healthcare under occupation.

2. Upcoming Publications

  • Socialist Healthcare in Eastern Europe (2025, Perspektive International): A comparative study on socialist-era health systems in the GDR, Yugoslavia, and Soviet Georgia, exploring their achievements, contradictions, and dismantling in the post-socialist transition.
  • The Health Struggle Front in Belgium and Brazil: Popular Organisation through Healthcare and Education (2025, Tricontinental Institute for Social Research): A comparative analysis of Médecine pour le Peuple (Belgium) and Brazil’s Popular Health Agents, examining how community health initiatives engage working-class communities in political mobilisation. This research, written from a historical materialist perspective, explores public health’s role in social struggle, particularly in peripheral communities and within capitalist health systems.
  • A Collaborative Series on Popular Health Struggles (2025, MPLP & Zetkin Forum): A collection of articles examining the origins and contemporary experiences of Médecine pour le Peuple, with a focus on women’s struggles, geographical and spatial dimensions of popular health organisation, and the themes of “Mains Solidaires et Santé Populaire” in a comparative perspective.

3. Conferences and Open Debates

We organise online and onsite conferences, fostering critical health and social medicine discussions. Through these events, publications, and research collaborations, the Popular Health stream at Zetkin Forum seeks to build a knowledge base that supports movements advocating for universal, publicly controlled, and socially embedded healthcare systems. Some of the latest events encompass:

  • “Medicine for the People” – Exploring radical health organising and public health policy alternatives.
  • “The Struggle for the Right to Health in Brazil: A Brief History, the Challenges of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Popular Resistance” – A discussion on the evolution of Brazil’s health struggles, bringing insights into grassroots resistance, policy shifts, and health activism in the face of systemic challenges.