Health Care and Illness

Catalog description

This course introduces students to the social, political, and economic context of health and illness in society. The course is divided into four parts. First, students focus on social factors of illness with a particular focus on the role of inequality in shaping health risks. Students discuss how to measure and quantify mortality and morbidity and the effect of social context. In the second part of the course students focus on the meaning and experience of illness with a particular focus on how different kinds of social deviance become categorized as medical, criminal, or personal issues in different societies and at different times. Next the course focuses on health systems and technologies, especially the political and economic configurations of health care provision in different countries. Finally, the course considers the role of health professionals and issues of bioethics. Prerequisite: CRIM 115 or SOC 110 or SOC 120 or ANT 101 . Offered Fall.