Historicising Commercial Determinants of Health: Call for Papers

The commercial determinants of health (CDoH) is an emergent field, critically examining how corporate actors and their products have shaped health and policy. Whilst studies of CDoH have deep, contemporary salience, their historical antecedents have rarely been the focus of extensive scholarly inquiry. This is surprising, given that history is replete with examples of corporate actors placing profit and/or corporate interest over individual and collective health.

This one-day in-person workshop, hosted at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, will engage with the rich history of CDoH. Bringing together scholars from across disciplines, and at all career stages, it will engage with case studies from across a variety of industries, in countries and contexts across the world.In doing so, we wish to draw together contributions which probe both the empirical and methodological contributions of historical research (broadly defined) to the study of CDoH, bringing these findings into dialogue with current health problems.

We welcome papers from a variety of perspectives, from scholars and policy makers at any career stage. However, all papers must be rooted in some degree of historical analysis (broadly defined). Prior CDoH research has tended to focus on ‘Unhealthy Commodity Industries’ (UCIs), but industries that papers might wish to discuss include (but are not limited to):

·Alcohol

·Tobacco

·Gambling

·Unhealthy foods and/or beverages

·The meat industry and/or industrial agriculture

·Fossil fuels

·The pharmaceutical industry

·The chemical industry

·The automotive industry

·The beauty industry

·Sexual health products

·The ‘wellness’ industry

An illustrative list of topics that papers may wish to discuss in relation to one (or more) of these industries include:

·The development and/or production of various goods and services

·The health impacts of these goods and services

·The changing discourses around the ‘health enhancing’ and/or ‘harmfulness’ of various products and services

·The strategies used to market or promote such goods and services

·The migration of strategies across corporate entities and/or their modification by other industries

·The development and/or efficacy of various political interventions in protecting the interests of corporate actors

·The history of corporate ‘health-washing’

·The efficacy of corporate self-regulation

·The efforts taken by individuals and/or organisations to redress the impact of corporate actors

This workshop will be the first of two, culminating in an edited collection analysing how historical perspectives (broadly defined) can enrich the study of CDoH.

Each one-day workshop feeds into the production of this edited collection. Participants will be invited by personal invitation or through an open call for papers. Selection will be made with the aim of ensuring the production of a diverse edited collection, reflecting a wide variety in subject matter, case studies, regional contexts, and career stages.

During the first workshop, to be held at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on the 15 April 2026, participants will be asked to present their preliminary ideas as a 20-minute paper. They will also engage in roundtable discussions with fellow participants about what it means to ‘historicise Commercial Determinants of Health.’ In the subsequent workshop, selected participants will be asked to workshop more complete ‘papers’, to garner feedback and prepare their chapters for peer-review.

Thanks to the generous support of the Wellcome Trust, the organisers can offer some limited support to cover reasonable travel expenses. Please indicate if you would be interested in receiving this support, with an estimate of how much it will cost you to attend, in your Expression of Interest. Please note that we cannot cover subsistence but can cover economy-class travel journey expenses.We can also offer support with accommodation where it might be difficult for participants to make the journey in one day. It is estimated the workshop will run from c.10am - 5pm. When allocating funding, priority will be given to ECRs, or those in precarious employment.

To apply, please provide an Expression of Interest, consisting of a short abstract (250 words max) and bio (150 words). If applying for funding, you should also include a breakdown of projected costs. Please submit these to lshjh14@lshtm.ac.uk by the 13 October 2025. We aim to inform respondents of outcomes to the open call by 12 November 2025. You can also email Jamie with any queries you might have about the workshop.

This is the first workshop held as part of the Wellcome Discovery Award project, ‘Kicking the Habit: Historicising 'Addictive' Sport Sponsorship in Britain, 1965-2025.’ The workshop is hosted by Anna Greenwood, Daniel O’Neill, Heather Wardle, Fabiola Creed, Alex Mold, and Jamie Banks. You find out more about the project via our social media channels:

X/Twitter:@KtHabitProject

Bluesky:@kthabitproject.bsky.social