On May 8, 2020, The North American Society for Social Philosophy named “The Perils of Partnership: Industry Influence, Institutional Integrity, and Public Health” (Oxford University Press, 2019) by Penn State Bioethics Program Director Jonathan H. Marks as a finalist for the organization’s esteemed annual book award.
This recent book was also selected for the inaugural Ethics Book Club of the American Public Health Association and as the keynote book talk at the Advancing Ethical Research conference in 2019.
“This is a genuine honor,” Marks said, “and I am so grateful to the society for recognizing my work in this way.”
“The Perils of Partnership” takes a close look at the dangers of public-private partnerships, which frequently exacerbate the public health crises they are designed to resolve by relying on collaboration with corporations that contributed to these intractable problems. Marks shows how these partnerships create webs of influence that undermine not only public health initiatives but also public health research and policy to the benefit of commercial interests. The book persuasively makes the case for separation from corporate entities, rather than collaboration, as the paradigm for ethically addressing our most serious public health challenges.