Healthy People, Healthy Society

Catalog description

This course examines how individual health and well-being are influenced by social forces and public policy. The course revolves around three questions: How are social life and individual well-being linked? How can social policy positively influence individual well-being? And, what can individuals do to produce healthy social relations and support social policies that increase population health? The course has four sequential parts. The first portion of the course begins in the 19th Century, when the social aspects of health were first discovered and addressed. Students will learn basic sociological and population health terminology and methods, as well as the meaning of "social life" within sociology and public health. The second portion of the course focuses on the social processes that produce health inequality, their effect on public health, and the policy interventions that can be used to overcome them and protect individual health and well-being today. This portion of the course will use public health cases to understand the roots of social inequality and the power of social policy to alleviate health inequity. We pay special attention to areas of tension in public health delivery: public goods, privatization, cost-benefit ideas, social justice, politicization of science and regulatory capture. The third portion of the course focuses on the processes that shape individual health behaviors and influence of social behaviors on individual well-being. Relevant concepts discussed include culture, networks, framing, nudging, norms, and peer influence. The final portion of the course considers ways that individual behaviors contribute to a healthy society. This includes examining individual social behaviors, like civic engagement and religious activity, and social movements to understand how social responsibility can promote better health for all.