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Recontextualization and Imagination: The Public Health Professional and the U.S. Health Care System

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Abstract

Based on a qualitative study, this paper explores how United States public health professionals view and think about the existing U.S. healthcare system, while also allowing these study participants to imagine new ways of structuring and practicing public health. Using semi-structured qualitative interviews, I show how public health professionals engage with the concept of “the social” and their personal experiences with public health to question the status quo. By giving public health professionals space in which to imagine changes and different ways of practicing public health, I demonstrate the effectiveness of imagination as a capacity that public health professionals possess to take the lead in creating the changes they hope for.

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The author has no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose and no funding was received to assist with the preparation of this manuscript.

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Correspondence to William Minter.

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Minter, W. Recontextualization and Imagination: The Public Health Professional and the U.S. Health Care System. Health Care Anal (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10728-024-00482-2

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