Health and Power Flashcards
What is social power in relation to health?
Capacity to influence another person by a variety of ways e.g. differences in wealth, charisma, violence, status, authority
What are examples in relation to health and power?
• Contested diagnoses: both patient and health worker try to influence each other
• Medical pluralism: health care systems - variety of healing experts in our lives
• Illness stories: Quest story can create social change and raise awareness
• Power of metaphors: change ourself awareness for the good or to become a source of stigma that categorises us
• Mourns of health and well-being: ways in which Canguihem argues we can stretch and reimagine norms of ideals of health rather than accept the narrowly defined norms of health
What is bipower?
Bipower is a theory of how social power operates in discussions around health, through things we take for granted/goes unnoticed. This type of power is hard to escape - it is very influential, health becomes like a religion - confess some things to some people, some to others. Operates at the level of broad communities and level of individuals hence ‘bi’
What is bipower at the dividual level?
self scrutiny that people engage in - refusing to get treatment for sleep apnoea as it believes it alters gender identity performance
What is bipower at a population level?
creating expert knowledge about populations of people and their health - a study of power relations embedded within anatomy textbooks. Are men and women’s and gender variant peoples bodies fairy represented in anatomical illustrations?
