SC108-4-FY-CO:
Health and Society
PLEASE NOTE: This module is inactive. Visit the Module Directory to view modules and variants offered during the current academic year.
2023/24
Sociology and Criminology
Colchester Campus
Full Year
Undergraduate: Level 4
Inactive
Thursday 05 October 2023
Friday 28 June 2024
30
26 May 2023
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
BA L350 Sociology and Health,
BA L351 Sociology and Health (including Foundation Year),
BA L352 Sociology and Health (including Placement Year),
BA L353 Sociology and Health (including Year Abroad)
This module provides a broad overview of the foundations of medical sociology. The module begins in autumn term by situating medicine in the social world and providing an overview of historical context and the development of current health theories.
We chart the emergence of medical sociology as a distinct sub-discipline and outline key contributions in the anthropology of health and medicine. We will then consider various theories, conceptual paradigms and frameworks for understanding the social dimensions of health, illness and the sociological aspects of the relationships between bodies and minds. We then address other topics such as global health, the influence of culture on health, complementary medicine and ethics in social health research.
In spring term, we begin with a discussion of how health inequalities are created and perpetuated throughout the life course. We then take a closer look at specific health inequalities introducing concepts such as cumulative disadvantage, and the associations between health inequalities and social characteristics such as class, race, and gender. We also discuss environmental inequalities.
This module aims to:
1. Teach students to evaluate the key debates and themes in the sociology of health and illness;
2. Help students to develop a critical awareness of the importance of analysing health and illness beyond the biological realm by attending to the social, political and economic context;
3. Provide students with an understanding of some of the ways in which social contexts matter for individual and community-level inequalities in well-being.
By the end of this module students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate skills in being able to review and assess a range of sociological theories as they apply to health and medicine;
2. Outline how socioeconomic circumstances shape health inequalities and health outcomes;
3. Engage critically and independently in debates relevant to the sociology of health and illness as they relate to ongoing, pressing social concerns.
Autumn Term: Introduction Health and Society
Week 2: Introduction to Health and Society
In this session we will introduce the field of medical sociology and provide a broad overview of health trends in the UK and globally. We will explore the historical context of the rise of medicine and healthcare more broadly. We will also review historical and current health issues and how they unequally impact citizens in the UK.
Week 3: Theories of Health: Social Construction
This week we will begin our review of major sociological theories about health with a discussion about how social conditions and norms shape our health, health behaviours, and our experience of illness. We will discuss this in terms of how social norms influence reproductive health behaviours.
Week 4: Theories of Health: The Normal and the Pathological
This week, we continue our review of health theory. We will examine how the concept of normality has been historically, culturally, and politically constructed, measured, and challenged, and question the social determinants of what culture considers to be 'normal' and 'pathological'. Our focus will be on what is considered a normal body and how certain body shapes and sizes have come to be associated with health and wellness.
Week 5: Theories of Health: Rationalisation, Biopolitics and Biopower
This week, we continue our review of health theory. Biomedicine is one among many forms of medical knowledge and practice, and it relies on a set of assumptions that need to be historically and culturally situated. In this session, we examine the rise of medical knowledge in Western Europe and North America in relation to what sociologists call the rationalization of society. We also explore how medicine, and biology more broadly, have become instruments of political governance and control using the COVID-19 lockdown as an example.
Week 6: Theories of Health: Social Determinants and Fundamental Cause
This week we will continue our investigation of health theories by discussing the ways in which race, class and gender can shape our health, resulting in different outcomes for different groups of people.
Week 7: Health Justice and Equity
This week we will investigate health as an issue of justice and equity. We will discuss issues such as health disparities and how those disparities impact individual physical and mental health.
Week 8: Global Health
The proponents of 'global health' argue that illness is a universal experience, and that there is a need to address existing global inequalities in terms of access to health care and treatments. Critics argue that 'global health' is an extension of colonial medicine, or another form of biomedical imperialism that exports Western conceptions of health and illness and in so doing, overlooks and displaces local, indigenous knowledge. In this session, we will explore this debate and ask: How did health emerge as a 'global' problem? Are diagnostic categories universal? Is Western medicine hegemonic?
Week 9: Culture, Behaviour and Health
This week we will examine how culture and cultural mores shape health and health disparities. We will also discuss the need for consideration of culture and cultural norms in public health program design and implementation.
Week 10: Complementary Medicine
This week we get a glimpse into the complexities of power and history that shape how we think about what counts as medicine and health, and who counts as a doctor. We discuss the ethical implications of the above categorizations.
Week 11: Ethics in Health and Medicine: Genetics, Eugenics
This week we will discuss the ethics of health and health care. We will examine and discuss past health research such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and how those studies have impacted the way we do health research today. We will also discuss the ethical implications of genetics, stem cell research, and eugenics, among other topics.
Spring Term: Life-course Health and Health Inequalities
Week 16: Health and the Life-course: Birth and Childhood
Research has shown that health in childhood can have long-lasting impacts on individuals as they grow older. This week we will examine how health related disadvantage in birth and childhood can be long-lasting and create inequalities in health later in life.
Week 17: Health and the Life-course: Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood
This week we will continue our exploration of health across the life course by examining health in adolescence and young or 'emerging' adulthood. We will address health issues critical to this stage in life such as alcohol and drug use and risk-taking behaviours.
Week 18: Health Through the Life-course: Adulthood and Beyond
This week we explore some of the variation in how we experience aging in different contexts. We examine how local policy contexts shape this experience and think through why some people and populations experience different challenges and opportunities as they age.
Week 19: Introduction to Health Inequalities
While we have touched on health inequalities here and there, this week we will begin our investigation into the ways in which our social location and characteristics can drive our health behaviour and health outcomes. In following weeks we will address several major areas of health inequality such as race, class, and gender, in more depth.
Week 20: Reading Week
Week 21: Health Inequalities: Cumulative Disadvantage
We continue to examine health inequalities this week by discussing the ways in which disadvantage of all kinds can accumulate throughout life, creating substantial relative disadvantage for some groups in society.
Week 22: Health Inequalities: Gender
This week we will discuss how one's gender shapes health behaviours and health outcomes for both physical and mental health.
Week 23: Health Inequalities: Race
This week we will discuss how race and ethnicity shape our health behaviours and health outcomes.
Week 24: Health Inequalities: Social Class
This week we will discuss how social class and the relative advantages and disadvantages we experience due to our social class work to shape our health behaviours and health outcomes.
Week 25: Health Inequalities: The Environment
This week we will examine how the places we live and work may expose us to environmental inequalities that can influence our health.
This module will be delivered through two-hour weekly seminars that will combine lecture with class discussion and small group work allowing the students to experience different ways of learning the material covered, Lectures will present key concepts for each weeks topic, while small group work will help the students to explore specific concepts of interest.
The module aims to create and inclusive learning environment for all students. It will do so by:
1. Offering both textual and visual materials (including film and internet content) so that students can learn in the manner best suited to them.
2. Using a bibliography that is inclusive of all gender identities, and all racial and ethnic identities.
3. Allowing students to learn about and experience views that challenge their ideas about the role of health in different societies today.
4. Informing students of the short- and long-term expectations regarding their interaction and engagement with the module content and assessments.
5. Making sure individual and teamwork remain supportive, respectful, diverse, and tolerant.
6. Seeking to support all forms of learners inside and outside of time spent in the seminar.
7. Providing personalised feedback in written and oral form during tutorials and office hours.
All lecture and class contents will be available via Moodle and Listen Again.
Students will be expected to read assigned material and to attend the weekly seminar. They will also be expected to and participate in discussions and group work in the seminar and at times outside of the seminar setting.
The module will be assessed through coursework (60%) and a final exam (40%).
1. Two essays of 1,500 words each in response to one of a set of prompts on module themes that will be provided to students. (Essay 1 in Autumn term and Essay 2 in Spring term worth 30% each)
2. The final exam will consist of a list of six to ten questions from which the student must select three to respond to. (Summer term 40%)
The coursework assessments are designed to give the student the opportunity to showcase understanding on specific topics of the module and the larger debates with more general theoretical and empirical ramifications (this will be assessed through the written submission each term). The final exam will assess the degree to which students are able to identify themes across topics and to apply learned theoretical frameworks to these themes.
For all assessments, students will receive marks drawn upon the departmental criteria measuring understanding of the subject; utilisation of proper academic style; relevance of material selected and of the arguments proposed; planning and organisation; logical coherence; critical evaluation; comprehensiveness of research; evidence of synthesis; innovation, creativity, and originality.
Assignment should be uploaded onto the Faser Coursework Submission system by the deadline established in the module outline.
This module does not appear to have a published bibliography for this year.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Exam |
Main exam: Remote, Open Book, 24hr during Summer (Main Period)
|
| Exam |
Reassessment Main exam: Remote, Open Book, 24hr during September (Reassessment Period)
|
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Laurie James-Hawkins, email: laurie.hawkins@essex.ac.uk.
Dr Laurie James-Hawkins
Email: socugrad@essex.ac.uk
Yes
Yes
Yes
No external examiner information available for this module.
Available via Moodle
No lecture recording information available for this module.
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