In this comment, I build on Shiffman’s call for the global health community to more deeply investigate
structural and productive power. I highlight two challenges we must grapple with as social scientists
carrying out the types of investigation that Shiffman proposes: the politics of
challenging the powerful; and
the need to investigate types of expertise that have traditionally been thought of as ‘outside’ global health. In
doing so, I argue that moving forward with the agenda Shiffman sets out requires social scientists interested
in the global politics of health to be reflexive about our own exercise of structural and productive power
and the fact that researching global health politics is itself a political undertaking