Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The One Health Approach: Examining its Occidental Culture, Paradoxes and Strategic Directions

  • Upfront
  • Published:
Development Aims and scope

Abstract

One Health as integrated approach to link human, animal and environmental health has become current by the COVID-19 pandemic. Its veterinary and medical scientific and occidental cultural origin raises several paradoxes. Health is culturally constructed whereas the reductionist medical sciences focus on disease and reducing health hazards. Critical reflection on the ontology and epistemology underlying the One Health approach, actors and activities, assists in identifying strategic directions to further shape One Health. To incorporate eco-health and societal health calls for a Systemic One Health approach, requiring different leadership structures, community-based approaches and political engagement. Health hazard risk reduction and preparedness and response are non-systemic activities, but no less important to pursue.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/

  2. https://www.britannica.com/event/influenza-pandemic-of-1918-1919

  3. https://www.conference.worldhealthsummit.org/Program/Session/WHS2023/PD-01

  4. https://www.onehealthcommission.org/en/why_one_health/what_is_one_health/https://www.who.int/europe/initiatives/one-health

  5. https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/financial-intermediary-fund-for-pandemic-prevention-preparedness-and-response-ppr-fif/overview accessed 19 October 2023.

  6. https://www.onehealthcommission.org/

  7. https://onehealthinitiative.com/

  8. https://tinyurl.com/5d4zym8f

  9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Bourgelat

  10. https://covid19.who.int/

  11. https://carbonpricingdashboard.worldbank.org/

  12. https://unicri.it/sites/default/files/2021-12/01_facing.pdf

  13. https://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA74/A74_15-en.pdf

References

  • Aizenman, Joshua, Minsoo Lee, and Donghyun Park. 2012. The Relationship between Structural Change and Inequality: A Conceptual Overview with Special Reference to Developing Asia. ADBI Working Paper 396. Tokyo: Asian Development Bank Institute. http://www.adbi.org/workingpaper/2012/11/13/5332.structural.change.inequality.dev.asia/

  • Armijos, Maria Teresa, Jeremy Phillips, Emily Wilkinson, Jenni Barclay, Anna Hicks, Pablo Palacios, Patricia Mothes, and Jonathan Stone. 2017. Adapting to changes in volcanic behaviour: Formal and informal interactions for enhanced risk management at Tungurahua Volcano, Ecuador, Global Environmental Change. 45: 217-226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2017.06.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becker, Sascha O., Steven Pfaff, and Jared Rubin. 2016. Causes and consequences of the Protestant Reformation. Explorations in Economic History. 62: 1-25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Braam, Dorien H., Rafiq Chandio, Freya L. Jephcott, Alex Tasker, and James L.N. Wood. 2021. Disaster displacement and zoonotic disease dynamics: the impact of structural and chronic drivers in Sindh, Pakistan. PLOS Global Public Health. 1(12): e0000068.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bresalier, Michael, Angela Cassidy, and Abigail Woods. 2020. One Health dans l’histoire. In J. Zinsstag, E. Schelling, D. Waltner-Toews, M.A. Whittaker, and M. Tanner. (Eds.) One Health, une seul santé, 21. Éditions Quæ, Versailles, France. EAN édition électronique 9782759233885. https://books.openedition.org/quae/35920

  • Deneault, Alain. 2016. Gouvernance: Le management totalitaire. Canada: Lux Éditeur.

  • Forster, Timon, Alexander E. Kentikelenis, Thomas H. Stubbs, Lawrence P. King. 2020. Globalization and health equity: The impact of structural adjustment programs on developing countries. Social Science & Medicine. 267: 112496, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112496. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953619304897)

  • Gabster, Brooke. P., Kim van Daalen, Roopa Dhatt, and Michele Barry. 2020. Challenges for the female academic during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Lancet. 395:10242. (1968–1970).

  • Garnier, Julie, Sara Savić, Natalia Cediel, Paoka Barato, Elena Boriani, Brigitte Bagnol, and Richard Anthony Kock. 2022. Mainstreaming Gender-Responsive One Health: Now Is the Time. Frontiers in Public Health 10: 845866. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.845866/full

  • Hardy, Catherine, and Denise Tolhurst. 2014. Epistemological beliefs and cultural diversity matters in management education and learning: A critical review and future directions. Academy of Management Learning & Education 13:2 - 265–289.

  • Harrison, Sarah, Lucy Kivuti-Bitok, Alexandra Macmillan, and Patricia Priest. 2019. EcoHealth and One Health: A theory-focused review in response to calls for convergence, Environment International 132: 105058 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2019.105058. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412019305409)

  • Jordans, Eva, Bettina Ng’weno, and Helen Spencer-Oatey. 2020. Developing Global Leaders: Insights from African Case Studies. Palgrave Studies in African Leadership: 211–257. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14606-1

  • Kock, Richard. 2015. Structural One Health - are we there yet?. The Veterinary record. 176: 140-2. https://doi.org/10.1136/vr.h193.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ladkin, Donna. 2020. Rethinking Leadership: A new look at old questions. Edward Elgar Publishing. Doi: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788119320

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Latulippe, Nicole. 2015. Bridging parallel rows: Epistemic difference and relational accountability in cross-cultural research. The International Indigenous Policy Journal 6(2).

  • Lemaire, Ton. 2002. Filosofie van het landschap. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Ambo/Anthos uitgevers, ISBN90 414 0708 1.

  • Leneman, Marjan, Eva Jordans, and Katinka de Balogh. 2021. Cultural factors in livestock emergency management. The Australian Journal of Emergency Management 36(3): 69-77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, Jenny M. 2013. Academic Governance: Disciplines and Policy, USA: Taylor & Francis.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Newman, Jeffrey Peter, Holger Robert Maier, Graeme Angus Riddell, Aaron Carlo Zecchin, James Edward Daniell, Andreas Maximilian Schaefer, Hedwig van Delden, Bijan Khazai, Michael John O’Flaherty, and Charles Peter Newland. 2017. Review of literature on decision support systems for natural hazard risk reduction: Current status and future research directions. Environmental Modelling & Software, 96: 378-409.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ott, Miles, Shelly F. Shaw, Richard N. Danila, and Ruth Lynfield. 2007. Lessons learned from the 1918–1919 influenza pandemic in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. Public Health Reports 122(6): 803–10. https://doi.org/10.1177/003335490712200612.

  • Pas, Berber R., Lucas D. Introna, Rinske Wolters, and Ed Vosselman. 2022. Professional responsibility in the borderlands: Facing irreconcilable accountability regimes in veterinary work. Sage Journals. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726722112

  • Pels, Peter, Igor Boog, J. Henrike Florusbosch, Zane Kripe, Tessa Minter, Metje Postma, Margaret Sleeboom-Faulkner, Bob Simpson, Hansjörg Dilger, Michael Schönhuth, Anita von Poser, Rosa Cordillera A. Castillo, Rena Lederman, and Heather Richards-Rissetto. 2018. Data management in anthropology: the next phase in ethics governance? Social Anthropology / Sociale Anthropologie. 26(3): 391-413.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Plowright, Raina K., Colin R. Parrish, Hamish McCallum, Peter J. Hudson, Albert I. Ko, Andrea L. Graham, and James O. Lloyd-Smith. 2017. Pathways to zoonotic spillover. Nature Reviews Microbiology 15: 502–510. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro.2017.45

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sandel, Michael J. 2020. The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?. UK: Penguin. ISBN-10: 1250800064

  • Shi, Zhengli, and Zhihong Hu. 2008. A review of studies on animal reservoirs of the SARS coronavirus. Virus Research 133(1):74-87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virusres.2007.03.012.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Slingenbergh, Jan, Giuliano Cecchi, and Marjan Leneman. 2018. Human activities and disease transmission: the agriculture case. In Benjamin Roche, Hélène Broutin, and Frédéric Simard (Eds.), Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases: pathogen control and public health management in low-income countries, Oxford; online ed, Oxford Academic, 23 August. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198789833.003.0017

  • Solano, Cristina, Maite Echeverz, and Iñigo Lasa. 2014. Biofilm dispersion and quorum sensing. Current opinion in microbiology. 18: 96-104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mib.2014.02.008.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Speksnijder, David, T. J. M. Verheij, F Meijboom, P. Sanders, D. Bens, and M. Leneman. 2020. Onderzoek naar kritische succesfactoren voor een laag antibiotica voorschrijfpatroon van dierenartsen: Rapport van het project Kritische Succesfactoren Dierenartsen (KSF Dierenartsen). Utrecht University. https://www.uu.nl/organisatie/veterinaire-service-en-samenwerking/lopend-onderzoek/kritische-succesfactoren-dierenartsen/rapportage

  • Stein, Howard. 2008. Beyond the World Bank Agenda: An Institutional Approach to Development, chapter 2 From Structural Adjustment to “Poverty Reduction”: Adjustment to the Crisis and the Crisis of Adjustment after 1980, Chicago, IL: online edn, Chicago Scholarship Online, 21 Febuary 2013), https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226771656.003.0002, accessed 19 October 2023.

  • Tousijn, Willem. 2006. Beyond decline: consumerism, managerialism and the need for a new medical professionalism, Health Sociology Review. 15(5): 469-480, https://doi.org/10.5172/hesr.2006.15.5.469

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trompenaars, Fons, and Charles Hampden-Turner. 2003, Riding The Waves of Culture: Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business, London-UK: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2nd Edition. ISBN 9025416616.

  • Van Schaik, Carel, and Kai Michel. 2016. The Good Book of Human Nature: An Evolutionary Reading of the Bible. New York: Basic Books. ISBN-13: 9780465074709.

  • Wijnberg, Rob. 2023. Voor ieder wat waars. The Netherlands: De Correspondent, ISBN 9789493254015. https://decorrespondent.nl/cp/vooriederwatwaars

  • Wilkinson, Richard, and Kate Pickett. 2010. The Spirit Level: Why greater equality makes societies stronger. London, UK: Bloomsbury Pres.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. One Health International Consultancies, Diversity Focus, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Marjan Leneman

Authors
  1. Marjan Leneman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marjan Leneman.

Ethics declarations

The author has attempted to explore general patterns for providing general insights in paradoxical issues and bottlenecks for strategy and action. The study is by no means complete and detailed, and undoubtedly many exemptions to general statements made in the text will exist. These are sacrifices made for the purpose of eluding the patterns and not a plea for simplicity in this very complex field of One Health. The author works in both reductionist and constructivist science domains and is not promoting one over the other. Regarding cultures, she forwards cultural sensitivity and intercultural dialogue and exchange.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Leneman, M. The One Health Approach: Examining its Occidental Culture, Paradoxes and Strategic Directions. Development 66, 170–180 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41301-023-00391-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41301-023-00391-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation