Conceptualization of Health Nationalism and Glocalization of Health Policy: Barriers and Chances for Global Public Health

ABSTRACT This article aims to sort out the meaning of the term “health nationalism,” operationalize this term and analyze this phenomenon in opposition to the cosmopolitan health policy model. Here, health nationalism is treated as a serious obstacle to access to healthcare and a cultural‐ideological barrier to equity in global public health. Two ideal models, “health nationalism” and “cosmopolitan health policy,” can be created considering issues such as: cooperation between societies for health policy; movement of people between countries in the context of healthcare; the exchange of experience and medical knowledge; assistance for migrants in need of healthcare; access to the labor market in the medical services sector; control of the distribution of medicines, vaccines and medical materials; and finally attitudes to medical knowledge and access to medical education. The empirical material used in the article was collected using the quantitative research method on a representative sample of Polish society. The article shows that the perspective of cosmopolitan health policy based on the glocalization strategy can oppose health nationalism enclosed in the logic of methodological nationalism. Although there is great potential for activities at the level of an international health civil society, there are also large social divisions over these issues.