Health and Social Science

Health is not just a medical matter, but is inseparable from the whole social world.  Recognition of this has been foundational for global health as a field, for example in the definition of health that was adopted in the Constitution of the World Health Organisation in 1946: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” 

If we want to understand and address the inequalities in health both within counties and across the world, we know that increasing access to medical interventions is necessary but insufficient. We need to attend to the broader conditions under which people live – including the social and economic inequalities that profoundly influence health outcomes. 

At King’s we have deep interdisciplinary expertise in health and social science. Researchers work across a range of scales to understand the ways that the social world shapes health outcomes. For example, ethnographic researchers illuminate the experiences and perspectives of individuals and communities, while quantitative researchers analyse large datasets to understand the impact of policies on the health of populations.  Partnerships are at the heart of this work, typically working with communities to co-design research questions and interventions.

Research Groups

ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health

We aim to shift public debate about mental health away from a focus on individualised interventions,…

Culture, Medicine and Power

The interdisciplinary study of social, cultural, political and historical dimensions of health and…

Health Inequalities Research Group

Focused on delivering interdisciplinary research on inequalities in mental health in marginalised…

Institute of Gerontology

We investigate the challenges of health and social care, as well as the social, economic and policy…

Project examples

Global Social Medicine

The Global Social Medicine Network brings together scholars from all regions who are committed to a…

Grid Oncology

A network of cancer centres across India aiming to decentralize, standardize and digitalize oncology…

Decolonising Global Health Archive

An interdisciplinary archive created by academics from the Department of Global Health and Social…

Trajectories: The social science of developmental pathways to health from preconception to childhood in South Africa

The first qualitative longitudinal study of a preconception cohort, South Africa

Transitions: The Ethics and Politics of Psychiatric Deinstitutionalization in South America

The Transitions project aims to transform the international history of psychiatric reform by…