This handbook highlights the relevance of the social sciences in global public health and their significantly crucial role in the explanation of health and illness in different population groups, the improvement of health, and the prevention of illnesses around the world. Knowledge generated via social science theories and research methodologies allows healthcare providers, policy-makers, and politicians to understand and appreciate the lived experience of their people, and to provide sensitive health and social care to them at a time of most need.

Social sciences, such as medical sociology, medical anthropology, social psychology, and public health are the disciplines that examine the sociocultural causes and consequences of health and illness. It is evident that biomedicine cannot be the only answer to improving the health of people. What makes social sciences important in global public health is the critical role social, cultural, economic, and political factors play in determining or influencing the health of individuals, communities, and the larger society and nation.

This handbook is comprehensive in its nature and contents, which range from a more disciplinary-based approach and theoretical and methodological frameworks to different aspects of global public health. It covers:

• Discussions of the social science disciplines and their essence, concepts, and theories relating to global public health
• Theoretical frameworks in social sciences that can be used to explain health and illness in populations
• Methodological inquiries that social science researchers can use to examine global public health issues and understand social issues relating to health in different population groups and regions
• Examples of social science research in global public health areas and concerns as well as population groups

The Handbook of Social Sciences and Global Public Health is a useful reference for students, researchers, lecturers, practitioners, and policymakers in global health, public health, and social science disciplines; and libraries in universities and health and social care institutions. It offers readers a good understanding of the issues that can impact the health and well-being of people in society, which may lead to culturally sensitive health and social care for people that ultimately will lead to a more equitable society worldwide.

Pranee Liamputtong, PhD, is a medical anthropologist and Professor of Behaviour Sciences at the College of Health Sciences, VinUniversity in Hanoi, Vietnam. Pranee has a particular interest in issues related to cultural and social influences on childbearing, childrearing, and women's reproductive and sexual health. She works mainly with refugee and migrant women in Melbourne and with women in Asia (mostly in Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam). She has published several books and a large number of papers in these areas. Some of her books in the health and social sciences include The Journey of Becoming a Mother Amongst Women in Northern Thailand (Lexington Books, 2007); Community, Health and Population (Oxford University Press, 2009); Infant Feeding Practices: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (Springer 2011); Motherhood and Postnatal Depression: Narratives of Women and Their Partners (Springer, 2011); Health, Illness and Well-Being: Perspectives and Social Determinants (Oxford University Press, 2012); Women, Motherhood and HIV/AIDS: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (Springer, 2013); Stigma, Discrimination and HIV/AIDS: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (Springer, 2013); Contemporary socio-cultural and political perspectives in Thailand (Springer, 2014); Children, Young People and Living with HIV/AIDS: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (Springer, 2016); Public health: Local and global perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 2016, 2019, with its third edition published in 2022); and Social Determinants of Health (Oxford University Press, 2019).

Pranee is a qualitative researcher and has also published several method books. Her most recent method books include: Researching the Vulnerable: A Guide to Sensitive Research Methods (Sage, 2007); Performing Qualitative Cross-Cultural Research (Cambridge University Press, 2010); Focus Group Methodology: Principles and Practice (Sage 2011, 2016); Qualitative Research Methods, 5th Edition (Oxford University Press, 2020); Using Participatory Qualitative Research methodologies in Health (Sage, 2015); Research Methods in Health: Foundations for Evidence-Based Practice, 4th ed. (Oxford University, 2022); Handbook of Research Methods in Health Social Sciences (Springer, 2019); and the Handbook of Social Inclusion: Research and Practices in Health and Social Sciences (Springer, 2022). Her new books that will be published in 2023 include: How to Conduct Qualitative Research in Social Science (Edward Elgar, in press), and Handbook of Qualitative Cross-Cultural Research Methods: A Social Science Perspective (Edward Elgar, in press).