Su-ming Khoo

University of Galway, Political Science & Sociology, Faculty Member

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• Contested meanings of development and globalization: sustainability, ecology, rights, citizenship, decolonization
• Human development and capabilities
• The Right to Development (Right to Food, Right to Health, Right to Education)
• Human rights, cultural diversity and pluralism
• Consumer activism, knowledge advocacy and activism
• Public goods and ethical globalization
• Higher education and public scholarship

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Noel B. Salazar

KU Leuven

Muqtedar Khan

University of Delaware

Josiah Heyman

University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP)

David Seamon

Kansas State University

Travis P Wagner

University of Southern Maine

Remo Caponi

University of Cologne

Armando Marques-Guedes

UNL - New University of Lisbon

Martin O'Neill

University of York

Adam M Croom

Case Western Reserve University

Andreas Fejes

Linköping University

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Papers by Su-ming Khoo

The People’s Health Movement: Understanding a Transnational Network’s Contribution to Global Health Governance

XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 15-21, 2018), Jul 19, 2018

The role of the citizen consumer: alternative consumer actvisim and the rights to health and development

This briefing outlines the important historical role of alternative consumer activism in local an... more This briefing outlines the important historical role of alternative consumer activism in local and global health governance. This alternative approach distinctively integrates health with development, social justice and environmental issues. Alternative consumer activism fits with rights-based approaches, emphasising entitlements, accountability and participation. The briefing draws upon case-study research to show how networked consumer campaigns have shaped global health governance. It highlights the important, yet under-researched role of Southern health activism in mobilizing global health rights and public health. Alternative consumer activism should be understood as an important force in global public health and health governance. It has played a crucial historical role in mobilizing citizens to claim their health rights and could provide a critical future resource for bridging the gap between communicable and non-communicable disease. Introduction: alternative consumer activism and health governance Consumer activism is recognised as having an important role in globalization, health governance and social movements, but there is ambivalence about what being a health 'consumer' means. Some see consumers as challenging globalization in favour of public health. Others criticise consumer activism as a Trojan horse for "corporate colonization", shifting responsibility for health from the state onto individuals and markets, with negative consequences for the poor. This briefing summarises and expands on a recent article (Khoo 2012) providing an analysis of the role of alternative consumer activism in the global, and especially developing country context. Academic studies of nodal and networked health governance tend to highlight the power of 'strong' actors such as pharmaceutical transnational corporations (TNCs), which engage in

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Reflections and Projections: Policy and Practice Ten Years On

DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals), Apr 1, 2015

This article has framed important discussions on how development education has responded to the i... more This article has framed important discussions on how development education has responded to the interconnected global challenges of neoliberalism and environmental sustainability. There has been a vibrant debate about how we engage with political power and retain the radical origins and transformative goals of development education. Reflecting on what has been important for our emerging development education community over the past decade, we consider what hindsights and insights we can distil. We consider some of the challenges before thinking through some of the key upcoming opportunities for development education from both policy and practice perspectives.

Putting the 'public' back into public health

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State Institutionalization of Left and Radical Social Movements in a Context of Inequalities – Comparative Insights on the Dynamics of Contestation, Incorporation and De/Politicization

XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 15-21, 2018), Jul 16, 2018

Protecting The Health Consumer – Health Capabilities and Collective Voice Versus Patient Choice

XVIII ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 13-19, 2014), Jul 18, 2014

ABSTRACT ‘Patients’ are increasingly seen through the lens of the ‘health consumer’. Non-communic... more ABSTRACT ‘Patients’ are increasingly seen through the lens of the ‘health consumer’. Non-communicable diseases and injuries are increasingly predominant, while a rejuvenated interest in the ‘social determinants of health’ and health inequalities re-locates individual biology and agency within a larger context of physical exposure and social conditions, highlighting longer chains of biomedical and social causal factors (Venkatapuram, 2011, 33, CDSH 2008). This contrasts against discussions which view patients as individual health consumers, leveraging self-efficacy to achieve societal health outcomes. The health capability paradigm offers an alternative perspective balancing individual health agency, scientific and professional judgement, and collectivist health norms (eg Ruger 2010, 141–142). This paper advances a health capability perspective on systemic health protection and argues for capability-oriented health system reforms (eg Thai Health 2013) which support and vindicate the principle of health protection. The discussion is illustrated with respect to well-known occupational and environmental health hazards such as asbestos that are beyond the health agency of individual ‘patients’ (Khoo and Kulsomboon, in progress). The goals are twofold – to prevent and decrease risk of exposure and to increase provision for those who have, or may in the future, become ill or disabled through exposure. The discussion points to the importance of protection as a systemic attribute in health governance. It focuses particularly on collectivist and solidaristic consumer action and its role in participatory deliberation through organized civil society channels. The theoretical discussion integrates reflexive health governance and the capabilities approach, linking normative, substantive and procedural claims for health justice and rights with theories of health governance. A ‘joint scientific and deliberative approach’ can provide a means to guide decisions and bring together normative substance, scientific evidence and procedural decision-making to achieve broader health system development and reform towards more legitimate and just forms of shared health governance (Ruger 2010, 183).

Health Governance and ‘Wicked Problems’: Facing Complex Developmental Transitions Using a Rights-Based Approach

Irish Studies in International Affairs, 2013

ABSTRACT This article discusses the question of ‘good governance’ in relation to the current deba... more ABSTRACT This article discusses the question of ‘good governance’ in relation to the current debates about global development and health. It aims to clarify some of the conceptual confusion and problems surrounding the ‘governance’ idea, addressing governance issues in a direct and substantive way through a discussion of current global health reforms. The article responds to the theme of this issue of Irish Studies in International Affairs, ‘The changing face of Africa’, by taking the changing face of global health as the focal space and asking how this shapes the way we understand ‘governance’. The discussion suggests that it is not the particular or exceptional situation of Africa per se that needs to be addressed but the complexity of development transitions, raising fundamental questions about equity, power, ideology, values and democratic choice. The article discusses the promises and shortfalls of the ‘shared health governance’ approach in Africa and suggests that a rights-based approach provides an alternative capable of addressing the ‘wicked problems’ of governance

Development NGOs, civil society and social change

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Mar 30, 2018

In order to understand development-focused non-governmental organizations (NGOs), it is useful to... more In order to understand development-focused non-governmental organizations (NGOs), it is useful to situate them in terms of their role in civil society and, more generally, in relation to the global historical context of social change. This contribution critically interrogates the three elements of development NGOs, civil society and social change. The long-run history of NGOs highlights two intertwined themes: the universalizing push towards a global spread of humanitarianism and internationalism, and a contradictory push-and-pull of politicization and depoliticization. NGOs rise to influence in international and national political processes in decades leading up to the 1990s reflects a shift in political thinking away from ‘government’ and towards ‘governance’ in a market-dominated global system.

Humane Security: Solidarity in Policy and Practice

Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Apr 3, 2023

An international planetary health for primary care massive open online course

The Lancet Planetary Health, Feb 1, 2023

Surviving Necropolitical Developments amid Democratic Disinformation: A Pandemic Perspective from Brazil

Bristol University Press eBooks, Oct 3, 2022

Surviving Necropolitical Developments amid Democratic Disinformation

Bristol University Press eBooks, Oct 3, 2022

Sustainable knowledge transformation in and through higher education: A case for transdisciplinary leadership

International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning, 2017

This article explores inter-and transdisciplinarity, given the need for more complex, relevant, a... more This article explores inter-and transdisciplinarity, given the need for more complex, relevant, and transformative knowledge to shift society towards more sustainable futures. It connects practical questions about economic, societal, and ecological limits to questions about the limitations of academic knowledge. Transdisciplinarity involves co-constructing socially relevant, transformative knowledge with actors outside academia. In practice, transdisciplinary work requires clarity about intentions, along with inclusive and well-facilitated collaborative processes that accommodate dissenting and transgressive perspectives. Higher education has begun to experiment with inter-and transdisciplinarity via sustainability-focused projects. However, it insufficiently addresses broader demands for transformation and cannot address these adequately without integral leadership.

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Reviews: Development, Democracy and Welfare States: Latin America, East Asia and Eastern Europe

Critical Social Policy, Jan 19, 2010

There are some criticisms inevitably, but these do not detract from the overall value of this boo... more

Strengthening Development Education Practice in the Higher Education Sector: Re-imagining Research

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2014

This chapter examines the case tor development education research, explores the relationship betw... more This chapter examines the case tor development education research, explores the relationship between research and development, education in the higher education sector and considers the implications for development education capacity and practice- it suggests a number of ways in which research enhances development education capacity, but argues that ‘research’ and the academic contribution need to be reimagined to address problematic divides. Dover’s reimagination of ‘scholarships’ reconnects research to an ecology of practice comprising engagement, inter-disciplinary collaboration and teaching. However, “’engagement’” is not necessarily synonymous with ‘compliance’ The situation of public higher education is discussed and the chapter concludes with some reflections about global visions of research and the particular relevance of critical, defiant, humanistic and rights-based versions of development education for a sector facing info globalisation, crisis and the pressures of relentless reform.

Review: The Idea of Justice, Amartya Sen

Critical Social Policy, Apr 13, 2011

Canadian eyes, to see so much conveyed in ways that do not rehash American assumptions, particula... more Canadian eyes, to see so much conveyed in ways that do not rehash American assumptions, particularly on a subject that necessarily intersects cultural values so readily. There are many North American authors who were not referenced, and could have been. Yet I don’t know that this is to the book’s great detriment; and I wonder, moreover, if American authors have paid as much attention to Australian and UK writers as Crisp has to her American counterparts. But it likewise makes me question if spirituality and social work isn’t too immersed in regional and national silos. A generation ago, one of my country’s leading fiction writers published a book on the cleavages between English and French communities in Canada, appropriately called Two Solitudes. I thought about that title, reading Crisp’s excellent book. How great is the gulf in English language scholarship between countries; and how might we overcome it? In June 2010, we hosted at the University of Calgary, the Fifth North American Conference on Spirituality and Social Work (http://w3.stu.ca/stu/ sites/spirituality/conference.html), to which there were participants and presenters from Hong Kong, Ireland, the Middle East, New Zealand, South Africa, South East Asia, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. But this was not enough. Something bigger could, and should occur – bringing together those leading English language scholars of spirituality and social work across the world to genuinely engage with one another, and ultimately to refer to each other’s work. Maybe this is a logical next step to Crisp’s excellent book. All we need is some energetic and enterprising person to pull it off. In the meantime, Spirituality and Social Work will be a welcomed addition to the literature. I particularly recommend it to practitioners and students wanting to understand spirituality’s relevance to direct social work practice, and above all, to those who know little about the topic and would like to consult a readable introductory overview. John R. Graham Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary, Canada

Review: Revitalising Communities in a Globalising World Lena Dominelli (ed.) Ashgate, Aldershot and Burlington, 2007, 466pp, ISBN 978-0-7546-4498-9, £60 (hbk)

Critical Social Policy, Feb 1, 2008

Overall, Gender, the State and Social Reproduction offers an erudite, if somewhat recurring, stor... more

Public Scholarship and Alternative Economies: Revisiting Democracy and Justice in Higher Education Imaginaries

This chapter critically interrogates the understanding of economics guiding higher education glob... more

Solidarity and the Encapsulated and Divided Histories of Health and Human Rights

Laws, Jun 12, 2015

This article examines the central but neglected principle of solidarity in human rights, health a... more This article examines the central but neglected principle of solidarity in human rights, health and bioethics, a concept subject to contention, evasion and confusion. It addresses the general ambivalence toward solidarity within law, philosophy and politics by discussing solidarity's co-evolution with inegalitarian encapsulations and divisions of human rights. It argues that a renewed conception of solidarity is essential to meet increasingly salient ethical demands, as gender equality and the individualization of responsibilities coincide with deficits of care and collective responsibility. Questions of embodiedness, (inter)dependence, care and asymmetry are neglected by dominant liberal approaches, but are key to rethinking solidarity.

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Intersections and collaborative potentials between global citizenship education and education for sustainable development

Globalisation, Societies and Education, Feb 17, 2021

ABSTRACT This article examines intersecting agendas and concerns in global citizenship education ... more ABSTRACT This article examines intersecting agendas and concerns in global citizenship education (GCE) and education for sustainable development (ESD) in the face of current global crises and pressures. While it cannot be assumed that the two educational projects automatically converge, generative and promising overlaps emerge from the shared interest in the SDG 4.7 education target. The article elaborates on a conversation emerging from the Bridge47 Knowledge Exchange Partnership focused on critical global citizenship education, and discusses the tensions, ambiguities, limitations and implications for critical, transgressive and potentially transformative GCE + ESD. While GCE and ESD can be ambivalent and constrained in formal educational settings, especially in comparison to informal projects where there are direct partnerships with people living on the margins of society, we argue that the potential generativity and transgressive possibilities of engaged and collaborative research have been under-emphasised. Participatory and praxis methodologies where education and research overlap offer significant transgressive and transformative potential. We point to important collaborative potentials in research practice that can help to bridge GCE-ESD gaps, given their substantial theoretical and practical experience in situated contexts, engagement with transgressive politics and creative and inclusive ethics of practice.

The People’s Health Movement: Understanding a Transnational Network’s Contribution to Global Health Governance

XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 15-21, 2018), Jul 19, 2018

The role of the citizen consumer: alternative consumer actvisim and the rights to health and development

Download

Reflections and Projections: Policy and Practice Ten Years On

DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals), Apr 1, 2015

Putting the 'public' back into public health

Download

State Institutionalization of Left and Radical Social Movements in a Context of Inequalities – Comparative Insights on the Dynamics of Contestation, Incorporation and De/Politicization

XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 15-21, 2018), Jul 16, 2018

Protecting The Health Consumer – Health Capabilities and Collective Voice Versus Patient Choice

XVIII ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 13-19, 2014), Jul 18, 2014

Health Governance and ‘Wicked Problems’: Facing Complex Developmental Transitions Using a Rights-Based Approach

Irish Studies in International Affairs, 2013

Development NGOs, civil society and social change

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Mar 30, 2018

Humane Security: Solidarity in Policy and Practice

Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Apr 3, 2023

An international planetary health for primary care massive open online course

The Lancet Planetary Health, Feb 1, 2023

Surviving Necropolitical Developments amid Democratic Disinformation: A Pandemic Perspective from Brazil

Bristol University Press eBooks, Oct 3, 2022

Surviving Necropolitical Developments amid Democratic Disinformation

Bristol University Press eBooks, Oct 3, 2022

Sustainable knowledge transformation in and through higher education: A case for transdisciplinary leadership

International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning, 2017

Download

Reviews: Development, Democracy and Welfare States: Latin America, East Asia and Eastern Europe

Critical Social Policy, Jan 19, 2010

There are some criticisms inevitably, but these do not detract from the overall value of this boo... more

Strengthening Development Education Practice in the Higher Education Sector: Re-imagining Research

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2014

Review: The Idea of Justice, Amartya Sen

Critical Social Policy, Apr 13, 2011

Review: Revitalising Communities in a Globalising World Lena Dominelli (ed.) Ashgate, Aldershot and Burlington, 2007, 466pp, ISBN 978-0-7546-4498-9, £60 (hbk)

Critical Social Policy, Feb 1, 2008

Overall, Gender, the State and Social Reproduction offers an erudite, if somewhat recurring, stor... more

Public Scholarship and Alternative Economies: Revisiting Democracy and Justice in Higher Education Imaginaries

This chapter critically interrogates the understanding of economics guiding higher education glob... more

Solidarity and the Encapsulated and Divided Histories of Health and Human Rights

Laws, Jun 12, 2015

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Intersections and collaborative potentials between global citizenship education and education for sustainable development

Globalisation, Societies and Education, Feb 17, 2021

Algorithmic governance: Developing a research agenda through the power of collective intelligence

by John Danaher, Rónán Kennedy, Su-ming Khoo, and Maria Helen Murphy

We are living in an algorithmic age where mathematics and computer science are coming together in... more We are living in an algorithmic age where mathematics and computer science are coming together in powerful new ways to influence, shape and guide our behaviour and the governance of our societies. As these algorithmic governance structures proliferate, it is vital that we ensure their effectiveness and legitimacy. That is, we need to ensure that they are an effective means for achieving a legitimate policy goal that are also procedurally fair, open and unbiased. But how can we ensure that algorithmic governance structures are both? This article shares the results of a collective intelligence workshop that addressed exactly this question. The workshop brought together a multidisciplinary group of scholars to consider (a) barriers to legitimate and effective algorithmic governance and (b) the research methods needed to address the nature and impact of specific barriers. An interactive management workshop technique was used to harness the collective intelligence of this multidisciplinary group. This method enabled participants to produce a framework and research agenda for those who are concerned about algorithmic governance. We outline this research agenda below, providing a detailed map of key research themes, questions and methods that our workshop felt ought to be pursued. This builds upon existing work on research agendas for critical algorithm studies in a unique way through the method of collective intelligence.

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