HLTA02H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Victim Blaming, Marxism, Social Constructionism
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Chapter 4: Sociology and Health
Warwick et al.
Marxist Theory
•Conflict theory—focuses upon the power of economics within society"
•Is a political economy theory that focus upon class inequalities, within an economic
framework as being fundamental to understanding society"
•Analyses the way in which capitalism works within society as a social system based upon
both inequalities and exploitation "
•Social class system is of crucial importance of marxists—suggest that the working classes
are essential of the benefit of the owners of the means of production"
•Power is fundamental in any analysis, as capitalism hold the most power within society "
•Within this framework— capitalism is viewed as detrimental to health and health services
exist to maintain health of the people to work so that they can continue to contribute to the
capitalist system and further be exploited for the benefit of capital"
•This view of health services to maintain social order, marxists argue that medicine is a
commodity— a product that is bought and sold"
•Motivation for new drug development is not need, it is profit"
•Capitalist medicine is seen as increasingly consumerist— creating the desire to purchase
both goods and services related to health"
•Pill for ever ill— effect is seen as a way to capitalize—pharma companies creating a drug for
everything which makes the public heavily reliant on medication thus more purchases, thus
more profits for the capital"
•Sociologists ref to medicalization as the process by which unusual occurrences from
everyday life become understood and defined as medical problems"
•Medicalization and the changing role of the pharmaceutical companies can be understood
from a marxist perspective as part of profiteering and maintaining health of workers "
•Marxist—criticism for limiting their focus to how the capitalist system affects health while
ignoring other social trends and social divisions such as gender."
Feminist Theory
•Explains social structures as being fundamentally based on inequalities bw women and men"
•Men see to have greater power in both public and private sphere "
•Context of health— FT has been critical of male dominance within the medical profession—
arguing that woman’s perspectives have been silenced and only understood form the male
port of view"
•Medicalization—argued has affected some groups more than others "
Social Constructionism
•School of thought believing that social reality is created though interactions of people"
•Health and illness from this perspective are seen as socially constructed with individuals
perceptions about their experiences forming a crucial aspect of the construction process"
•Idea is fundamental to modern sociology"
•Every aspect of the social world has meaning and significance within society"
•No universal truths— to say somethings socially constructed means that it has been
fashioned by society and made by humans "
•Idea of social construction of health and illness can be supported by changing
interpretations of knowledge over time "
•ie homosexuality is no longer seen as an illness, hysteria is no longer diagnosed as a
medical condition, new illnesses are being diagnosed s/a ADHD "
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