Human wellbeing is increasingly jeopardized by interconnected planetary crises, including climate change, pandemics, ecological collapse, and escalating health inequities. These crises are not isolated events but rather symptoms of a profound rupture in humanity's relationship with the environment. While scientific advancements have enhanced our understanding of these individual crises, there is an urgent need to reconceptualise health as the product of complex sociocultural, ecological, and political forces. These forces span from global capitalism to local Indigenous cosmologies. Anthropology offers a unique lens, bridging scales from the microbiological to the geopolitical, while amplifying voices often marginalised in mainstream discussions of crisis. By approaching health as a pluriversal phenomenon—one that encompasses humans, animals, and ecosystems—we aim to develop new frameworks for planetary health that reject problematic divides between “nature” and “culture,” and instead emphasise diversity and interconnection as critical strategies for survival.
At the Institute for Social Anthropology (ISA), we explore how planetary crises reshape healthcare inequities, particularly in regions like the Himalayas or island communities in the Indian Ocean, where the physical, social, and mental wellbeing of local populations are deeply affected by melting glaciers and rising sea levels.. We also consider how the loss of biodiversity is intrinsically connected to both global and local health outcomes. Furthermore, we critically examine whose knowledge is valued in the context of planetary health, asking whether Indigenous land stewardship practices can inform global climate policies and how local knowledge shapes both environmental conservation and exploitation. Finally, we interrogate the commodification of health, questioning how the industrial extraction of resources poisons both human bodies and ecosystems and who profits from the commercialisation of “green” or “wellness” capitalism, as well as the industrialisation of “traditional” healthcare practices.
Through these inquiries, we seek to rethink health in a time of planetary crisis, offering an anthropological framework that is inclusive, critical, and forward-thinking.
