Critical Health Communication: Theory and Practice
Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge (2026), xxiii, 285 pp.
"This book offers strong rationales for adopting a critical view of health communication by demonstrating how theories and critical practices can be enriched by foregrounding issues of power, politics, and culture.In health communication, critical approaches highlight the role of communication in constituting, reinforcing, and resisting inequitable power relations that underlie the sociocultural and structural barriers to well-being. This book highlights the theoretical and practical contributions of critical health communication to allow readers to gain in-depth understanding of the tools and methods required to conduct critical research. It includes a broad array of approaches to health communication scholarship such as rhetorical, feminist, anti-racist, and intersectional perspectives. Chapters present research from a variety of international and local contexts addressing medical and public health challenges and center issues of power, resistance, voice, and social change from marginalized perspectives." (Publisher description)
1 Introduction / Shaunak Sastry, Heather M. Zoller, and Ambar Basu, 1
CRITIQUING DOMINANT DISCOURSES
2 From Symptoms to Transformation: Addressing the Root Causes of Hunger Through Critical Health Communication / Rebecca de Souza, 31
3 Reproductive Injustice, Feminicides, and the Intersections of Critical Health Communication and Journalism Praxis / Leandra H. Hernández, 56
4 God, Country, and Family: A Risk Orders Theory Approach to Deconstructing Health Messages About Family Planning in the Latine Community / Kimberly Field‑Springer and Julee Tate, 75
5 Communicating Structural Violence: A Case Study of Entertainment Establishment Women Workers in Kathmandu, Nepal / Iccha Basnyat, 96
ADVOCACY, ACTIVISM, AND SOCIAL CHANGE
6 Critical Pragmatism and the Politics of the Possible: Communicating for Critically Holistic Health in the Workplace and Beyond / Heather M. Zoller, 115
7 HIV Interventions, Collectivization Efforts, and Citizenship on the Margins of the State in India / Shamshad Khan, 138
8 Navigating the Terrain: Applying Critical Health Communication Methods to Participatory Action Praxis with Black Women Farmers / Andrew Carter, 158
CRITICAL METHODS IN HEALTH COMMUNICATION RESEARCH AND PRACTICE
9 Biocriticism in a Time of Precarity: Inventional Resources for Critical Health Communication / Lisa Keränen, Liliane Campos, and Jennifer Malkowski, 185
10 Culture‑Centered Approach as Critical Health Practice: The Body as Resistance / Mohan Dutta, Satveer Kaur‑Gill, Pankaj Baskey, Selina Metuamate, Indranil Mandal, and Venessa Pokaia, 210
11 Decolonizing Health Communication: Reflections on Critical Health Communication Research in Nigeria / C. T. Adebayo, O. O. Olusanya, and O. E. Ambrose, 231
12 Journeys in Critical Health Communication: Meditations on Being/Becoming CCA Scholars / Balkisa M. Sissy, Usman Bah, Yixuan Qi, and Shaunak Sastry, 245
13 New Light: Critical Health Communication and Connections to Experiences from the Field / Urmi Basu, Ambar Basu, Mavis Freeman Essel, and Roopam Mishra, 261
CRITIQUING DOMINANT DISCOURSES
2 From Symptoms to Transformation: Addressing the Root Causes of Hunger Through Critical Health Communication / Rebecca de Souza, 31
3 Reproductive Injustice, Feminicides, and the Intersections of Critical Health Communication and Journalism Praxis / Leandra H. Hernández, 56
4 God, Country, and Family: A Risk Orders Theory Approach to Deconstructing Health Messages About Family Planning in the Latine Community / Kimberly Field‑Springer and Julee Tate, 75
5 Communicating Structural Violence: A Case Study of Entertainment Establishment Women Workers in Kathmandu, Nepal / Iccha Basnyat, 96
ADVOCACY, ACTIVISM, AND SOCIAL CHANGE
6 Critical Pragmatism and the Politics of the Possible: Communicating for Critically Holistic Health in the Workplace and Beyond / Heather M. Zoller, 115
7 HIV Interventions, Collectivization Efforts, and Citizenship on the Margins of the State in India / Shamshad Khan, 138
8 Navigating the Terrain: Applying Critical Health Communication Methods to Participatory Action Praxis with Black Women Farmers / Andrew Carter, 158
CRITICAL METHODS IN HEALTH COMMUNICATION RESEARCH AND PRACTICE
9 Biocriticism in a Time of Precarity: Inventional Resources for Critical Health Communication / Lisa Keränen, Liliane Campos, and Jennifer Malkowski, 185
10 Culture‑Centered Approach as Critical Health Practice: The Body as Resistance / Mohan Dutta, Satveer Kaur‑Gill, Pankaj Baskey, Selina Metuamate, Indranil Mandal, and Venessa Pokaia, 210
11 Decolonizing Health Communication: Reflections on Critical Health Communication Research in Nigeria / C. T. Adebayo, O. O. Olusanya, and O. E. Ambrose, 231
12 Journeys in Critical Health Communication: Meditations on Being/Becoming CCA Scholars / Balkisa M. Sissy, Usman Bah, Yixuan Qi, and Shaunak Sastry, 245
13 New Light: Critical Health Communication and Connections to Experiences from the Field / Urmi Basu, Ambar Basu, Mavis Freeman Essel, and Roopam Mishra, 261
