7.Y.2. Solidarity and public health teaching and practice in the age of new normal
Authors:   Organised by: ASPHER,   Chair persons: Nadav Davidovitch (Israel), Robert Otok (ASPHER)
Published: October 2024

This workshop will address the concept and topic of solidarity as it pertains to public health (PH). The objectives of the workshop are: • To explore what is understood by solidarity in the context of PH; • To consider the PH scenarios in which solidarity may be an important construct; • To consider how solidarity is understood by PH experts and practitioners, and • To profile investigate how solidarity is represented in educational and training programme in PH.

Solidarity is a social determinant of health. It is proven as a crucial factor in achieving PH objectives such as: compliance with vaccination campaigns; donations of bodily samples to biobanks; or refraining from polluting. It can be defined as a cost taken upon oneself for the sake of a group with which one identifies (Prainsack and Buyx 2017). As PH is about achieving health objectives through public participation, solidarity can be seen as the kernel of PH practice. In an era with emerging PH threats, from pandemics to climate crises, the importance of understanding the many meanings and uses of solidarity is essential to PH practitioners. There is much more in solidarity than meets the eye. Solidarity is largely a mystification of a collective identity, a boundary-making mechanism that draw the line between ‘us’ and ‘them’, and most importantly, it is the generator of what is understood as ‘public’. Facing increasing challenges in PH, solidarity is a concept to be thoroughly apprehended. Is there one solidarity, or rather multiple solidarities? What are the referent publics of different solidarities and how do they interact? Can be a global solidarity? Is solidarity a normative or descriptive concept? Is solidarity the outcome or the generator of pro-social behaviour. These are questions that will be discussed in this round table workshop session. Curious to learn about PH views on solidarity, we conducted structured interviews with PH experts to ascertain views on solidarity as a key concept in PH; whether the concept should be incorporated into PH education programme, and if so, how best to do that. Preliminary findings suggest that all interviewees agreed that solidarity is a key concept in PH but when asked to define solidarity, provided diverse answers. They acknowledged that solidarity should be taught in different stages of PH education, but admitted that it rarely appears in current curricula. Many interviewees stated that solidarity may be culturally and politically determined and should be discussed through case studies and guest lectures as well as theory. The added value of this workshop is to raise awareness about the importance of the concept of solidarity and its importance in PH education and training programmes. The workshop will run as a Round table discussion, in which each panellist will make a short presentation on a specific subject, which will then be discussed between panel members and audience.

Key messages

• Solidarity is considered a key concept for the practice of public health, yet has been constantly contested as too vague and even too political.

• Presenting key challenges facing the teaching of solidarity as competence in public health; its conceptual ambiguities and cultural differences and the different uses of solidarity as a value and tool.

Speakers/Panelists

Farhang Tahzib

Faculty of Public Health, Haywards heath, UK

Mary Codd

University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

Alison Mc Callum

University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

Hagai Boas

Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Jerusalem, Israel