SOC 2101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Divine Providence, Chemical Substance
31 Aug 2015
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Document Summary
The materialist view examines social class in relation to illness. Class standing is the reason as to why people get sick. It states that people in lower social economic strata are sicker. They emphasize the social and economic factors that contribute to health. It doesn"t have anything to do with biology, but with social factors, particularly socio-political and socio- economical ones. All these factors are beyond the control of individuals. People cannot control the conditions of the working world. The materialist explanations of disease develop an evidence-driven account of disease based on social organization and inequality instead of individual biology, claiming that class and health are linked by structural factors. They show a link between the incident of disease (the majority of diseases) and income/class through statistical analysis. The richer and more educated people have better quality medical care. Engels argued that disease and its treatment are a direct outcome of a capitalist economic system.
