In the second in a series of articles addressing the current challenges and opportunities for the development of Health Policy and Systems Research (HPSR), Lucy Gilson of the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and colleagues argue that insights from the social sciences are vital for advancing the science of HPSR. Such insights include approaches to making generalisations from rich understanding of context, supporting policy learning, and enhancing research rigour and quality.
The authors say: "As health policies and systems are themselves social and political constructions, it is important to acknowledge the particular value of social science perspectives in the field."
PLoS Medicine is publishing a three part weekly series on the "state of the art" in health policy and systems research on 9, 16, and 23 August 2011.
Funding: No specific funding was received for writing this article.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Citation: Gilson L, Hanson K, Sheikh K, Agyepong IA, Ssengooba F, et al. (2011) Building the Field of Health Policy and Systems Research: Social Science Matters. PLoS Med 8(8): e1001079 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001079
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CONTACT:
Lucy Gilson
University of Cape Town Centre for Health Policy School of Public Health and Family Medicine Cape Town
South Africa
Lucy.gilson@uct.ac.za
PLOS Medicine