Social Science Approaches for Research and Engagement in HPSR

The Social Science Approaches for Research and Engagement in Health Policy and Systems (SHAPES) Thematic Working Group (TWG) convenes discussions and activities to strengthen and raise the profile of social science approaches for research and engagement within health policy and systems research (HPSR).

SHAPES was launched in 2011 and has developed into a diverse and active community of practice including academic, policymaker and practitioner members from both low- and middle-income country (LMIC) and high-income country (HIC) settings. Members have varied interdisciplinary and praxis backgrounds, but a shared conviction that social science has an important role in HPSR and in health systems strengthening.

We seek to build connections between health system actors (researchers, policymakers, health care managers, educators, civil society, ‘community’, the media, and donors), and between existing networks. SHAPES is therefore a diverse TWG that connects members working on and interested in different perspectives and disciplines. Members come from different geographic regions, linguistic and cultural backgrounds, practitioners and researchers – those brand new to the idea of an HPSR field, and those that have been part of the initial field-building experience.

Across this diversity there is a common commitment to the promotion of research, advocacy and intervention approaches that are sensitive to context, amplify voices on the margins, and generate knowledge for real-world change in health policy and systems. In SHAPES, diversity, equity, and transformation are taken very seriously, as areas of research interest and as a shared value.