7 Health
Learning Objectives for this Chapter
After reading this Chapter, you should be able to:
- develop an introductory understanding of the sorts of topics that social scientists working in the area of health typically explore,
- begin to critically analyse approaches to health and wellbeing, drawing on different theoretical perspectives, and
- critically situate health and wellbeing in their social contexts by thinking about how social characteristics can contribute to the health and welfare of people and groups.
How do social scientists understand health and wellbeing?
The sociology of health is concerned with the social institution of medicine and, as White (2017: 44) describes, it “ranges over a wide territory: [interrogating, for example] how some conditions come to be called diseases; the experience of being sick or ill; the organisation of the medical profession; the ways in which health policies are produced; and the workings of hospitals.” The sociology of health has changed its focus and emphasis over time.
In the 1950s sociology concerning medicine was most often focused on assisting the “dissemination of medical knowledge” and encouraging “patient compliance with medical directives” (White 2017: 37). There was very little questioning or critique of the institution of medicine or the way it was practiced; health institutions were generally considered to be benevolent and, as Talcott Parsons (1902-1979) (the so-called ‘father’ of structural functionalism) argued, the institution of medicine tended to be uncritically regarded as being crucially important in operating alongside other institutions to support a harmonious and self-sustaining society.
Reflection exercise
Before you move on, grab a pen and paper and write down a short (~30 word) critique of the structural functionalist perspective of medicine (which prevailed in the 1950s, as described above) as a purely benevolent social institution. Think about your critique; what have you included, and what might you have missed?
From the 1960s onwards, social scientists became more interested in how conflict and power might also be expressed through the field of medicine. For instance, consider the concept of medicalisation. The concept of ‘medicalisation’ refers to the process by which some aspects of the human condition come to be defined as representing ‘illness’ or ‘sickness’. In turn, labelling someone as ‘ill’ enables a whole range of medical interventions to take place. From the 1960s onwards, sociologists began to become interested in how labels of illness might reflect social norms around behaviours, instead of illness per se.
In one of his earlier books called Madness and Civilisation, Foucault (1961) talked about how the idea of ‘madness’ (or mental illness) has changed over time, from being treated in some societies as a sign of wisdom or spiritual connectedness to being classified as dangerous, where individuals were confined (e.g. in asylums) and subjected to heavily inv