Work and Health in the Global Economy: Lessons from Developing and Industrialized Countries on the Impact of Work on Health

Abstract

Occupational and environmental health are dependent on the decisions made about the production of goods and services: the quality of our lives in the community and workplace and our well-being as workers, residents, and citizens are profoundly influenced by the technology employed in producing “our way of life.” We seek to understand the system of decision making about the use of humans and the natural environment in production; we want to know who is sitting at the table where decisions are taken and what drives their decisions; and we want to know how ordinary people can take their appropriate place at the table, so that they can protect their health and well-being. The global economy is not what it seems: a mythology has been created about globalization in which the marketplace is the only reality and nations and national identity—human agency—play only a minor role.