Decentralising Global Health: the geopolitics of health knowledge from a Latin American perspective in the twentieth century

Abstract In this article we explore the theoretical framework of the geopolitics of knowledge from the perspective of the (de)coloniality of knowledge and power, as outlined by Latin American authors. We mobilised two case studies on health in Latin America throughout the 20th century to visualise the argument. Starting from the premise that all knowledge is necessarily localised, we reflect conceptually and empirically on the regimes of authorisation and legitimation of health knowledge, as well as the epistemological disputes that operate in international relations. Methodologically, we call ‘decentralisation of global health’ the analysis guided by the referentials of Critical Global Health, which recognises the limits of the debates on health in the discipline of International Relations. We therefore argue that the epistemic encounters that take place in post-colonial spaces have an impact on the geopolitics of knowledge in health, generating a hybrid conception that we call social biomedicine.