The Process Leading to Physician Activism for Sustainable Change

Efraïm Hart, Giliam Kuijpers, Glenn Laverack and Fedde Scheele
Additional contact information
Efraïm Hart: Department of Medical Education, OLVG Hospital, 1091 AC Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Giliam Kuijpers: Training Institute and Social Enterprise MedGezel, 1381 XZ Weesp, The Netherlands
Glenn Laverack: Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, 38122 Trento, Italy
Fedde Scheele: Department of Medical Education, OLVG Hospital, 1091 AC Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 18, 1-14

Abstract: Health systems all over the world are in a process of transition and may even need a paradigm shift for sustainable development. This is where activism may play a role. This study focused on why some physicians become activists and how these physicians have either achieved successes or failed to do so. This study is inspired by grounded theory. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted to evaluate the experiences of seven purposefully sampled physician-activists from the Netherlands. Our research suggests that activism originates from an awareness of problems in the area of health inequalities, resulting in moral discomfort combined with a strong drive to speak up against perceived failings, even when personal risks may be involved. Activists that were most successful in achieving political and health changes meandered effectively along the borders of the system, taking care to preserve ties with supporters within that system and, at the same time, taking a relatively isolated position while using strategies to oppose the system. Diverging too much from the system resulted in measures taken by the system to silence them. Successful activism may be regarded as a social and professional skill that may be learned.

Keywords: health activism; physician-activists; doctor-activists; health advocacy; sustainable development goals; health inequality; medical education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/18/10003/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/18/10003/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:18:p:10003-:d:630362

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().