Rapidly rising interest - from national and international health organisations, governments, civil society, the private sector and myriad academic disciplines - in what has become known as the ‘social determinants of health’ is welcome to the many, in and outside of public health, who have long held that issues of social justice and the public's health are inextricably linked. As inevitably happens, however, when an issue gets ‘mainstreamed’, a multiplicity of disparate voices enter the discussion, informed by not only different disciplinary vantages, but also divergent values, priorities and politics.