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Richard Freeman (U.K.) is Senior Lecturer and Director
of Undergraduate Teaching in the School of Social and Political
Studies, University of Edinburgh, where he teaches courses
in government, research method and comparative social and
public policy. He was formerly Lecturer in the Department
of Political Science and Social Policy, University of Dundee
(1991-1994). In 1998-1999, he was Jean Monnet Fellow at
the Robert Schuman Centre, European University Institute,
Florence, taking part in the European Forum on Recasting
the European Welfare State.
He studied at the Universities of Oxford and Manchester,
taking a first degree in Modern History and Modern Languages
(German), then a postgraduate Diploma in Economic and Social
Studies (Social Administration). His doctorate, awarded
in 1992, examined the role of prevention in health policy
and was based on research on policy responses to AIDS.
Dr. Freeman has since completed an extensive cross-national
survey and comparative analysis of health politics in Europe
(Freeman 2000). More recent research has covered the politics
of information technology in the health sector in Britain
and France. He is now primarily concerned with patterns
and processes of cross-national policy transfer or learning
in health care, from which his current Fulbright project
is derived.
Selected Publications:
· Freeman, R (2001) New Knowledge in New Settings:
social learning in the health sector. Final report to
the European Science Foundation, Standing Committee for
the Social Sciences.
· Freeman, R (2000) The Politics of Health in
Europe, Manchester: Manchester U. P.
· Chamberlayne, P, Cooper, A, Freeman, R and Rustin,
M (eds) (1999) Welfare and Culture in Europe. Towards
a new paradigm in social policy, London: Jessica Kingsley
· Freeman, R and Moran, M (2000) Reforming health
care in Europe. West European Politics (special issue
on Recasting European Welfare States) 23 (2) 35-58.
· Freeman, R (1999) Recursive politics: prevention,
modernity and social systems. Children and Society
13 (4) 232-241.
· Bennett, R and Freeman, R (1998) Policy Responses
to AIDS in Europe. European Commission EUR 17789 - Research
on bioethics - AIDS: Ethics, Justice and European Policy,
edited by Bennett, R, Erin, C and Harris, J, Luxembourg:
Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.
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Public Health and Policy Learning
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, public health
shows a high degree of technical elaboration. New concepts
such as targets, health impact assessment and benchmarking
have become key terms in what is now an international vocabulary
of public health governance. But the international communication
of ideas and experience in health policy making - the way
it happens and the difference it makes - is a process which
is as yet insufficiently understood. This project has two
principal objectives:
(i) to describe patterns of cross-national communication
of policy ideas in the field of public health, and
(ii) to assess and account for the way in which these determine
local policy development.
It has both empirical and theoretical components, and forms
part of a continuing programme of research on policy learning
in the health sector. Its substantive focus is on policy
instruments - the tools, mechanisms and 'governing technologies'
through which ideas are put into practice.
The study begins with a secondary analysis of what is perhaps
the best available instance of transfer in the health sector,
that of managed competition. The purpose of this is to describe
a dominant pattern of learning, and to clarify some of the
theoretical precepts on which subsequent work will draw.
The empirical research which follows is comparative, focusing
on change in public health policy in two urban locations
in Scotland (Edinburgh) and the US (Boston). Data will be
collected from interviews and from source documents. Analysis
will give particular attention to the ways in which generic
ideas are adapted to local circumstance. Project outcomes
include a series of working papers, published papers and
a dedicated policy seminar.
The project expresses the core concern of the NCS Challenges
of Health in a Borderless World programme, which is with
the determinants of public health policy in a global context.
It is designed to explore the ways in which public health
policy is shaped by institutional norms; to identify innovative
approaches to policy making, and to formulate policy relevant
recommendations for health. For globalisation brings with
it not just new problems for public policy, but new ways
of addressing them. In this respect, the project is conceived
in the spirit of the Fulbright programme as a whole, which
rests on international exchange in the service of social
and political improvement.
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Freeman,
Richard
