INEQUALITIES ESSAY/EXAM

Question 1

How does Whitehead (1992) define health inequalities?

Answer 1

health differences that are ‘avoidable, unjust, unfair and unacceptable’

Question 2

When did Klinenberg publish his work on the 1995 Chicago heat wave?

Answer 2

2002

Question 3

Outline paragraph 1 - biological vs social

Answer 3

• biological vs social
• whitehead (1992)
• Mills - public vs private
• Klinenberg (2002) - social autopsy discovered that deaths were socially patterned
• Hurricane Maria (September 2017) - lack of food, water, electricity
• natural vs social selection: the vulnerable are at higher risk: cheaper housing in disaster prone areas/ Holpuch wrote about a stroke sufferer/ women and sexual assault

Question 4

Outline paragraph 2 - wealth inequalities

Answer 4

• The Wilkinson Hypothesis (1996): not level of deprivation but degree of relative deprivation - WW2 Britain - the spirit level (Wilkinson and Pickett, 2009) - Greece and USA
• evaluation: appeals to the notion that social factors have a huge influence over our health

Question 5

Outline paragraph 3 - environmental explanation

Answer 5

• individuals responsible for making their own life choices (Friedli, 2015)
• smoking, diet, exercise
• Contemporary example: Iceland (WHO) - trends in smoking and drinking have been falling which proves lifestyle plays a significant factor in overall health
• criticism: biological factors play a role - politicians favour this view
• counter critique: biological explanations are often exacerbated by environmental factors
  ALSO: where we live: Japan vs USA (Marmot, 1976)
• Marmot: Whitehall study of civil servants - longitudinal

Question 6

When did Marmot argue that where we live effects our health?

Answer 6

1976

Question 7

Outline paragraph 4 - sleep

Answer 7

• sleep effects health (can cause stress, productivity issues etc.)
• sleep patterns vary across cultures
• Carey (2014) - capitalism has disrupted sleep patterns due to factory and shift work - globalisation means that service economy requires alert and flexible workers
• Japan (Steger, 2016) - long work hours, public sleeping
• 40% less than 6 hours sleep
• nearly all full time works claim their lack of sleep stems from long work hours - EU has rules to avoid this, Japan does not (The straight times, 2017)
• economy can suffer (138 billion dollars)
• evaluation: shows that environmental, social and cultural habits ingrained in society effect or health

Question 8

Who claims that capitalism has disrupted sleep patterns?

Answer 8

Carey (2014)

Question 9

Who talks about Japan and sleep patterns?

Answer 9

Steger (2016)

Question 10

Who argues that individuals are responsible for making their own life choices?

Answer 10

Friedli (2015)

Question 11

What did Holpuch argue?

Answer 11

that a stoke sufferer was left vulnerable during Hurricane Maria

Question 12

Who argued that Japanese in Japan had lower risk of heart disease than Japanese in America?

Answer 12

Marmot (1976)

Question 13

Outline the conclusion

Answer 13

• sociologists have understood questions of inequalities (relating to health and class) as largely social
• shown through: effects of natural disasters, relative deprivation, lifestyle factors e.g smoking and drinking
• consequences?? - government policy? changes in society can effect health of population - there is therefore a need for governments which can implement changes to reduce inequalities
• has a direct effect on how governments prioritise their spending

Question 14

Outline the introduction

Answer 14

• focus on how sociologists have understood questions of inequality
• focusing on health inequalities in relation to class
• Klinenberg
• relative deprivation
• environmental factors
• sleep
• understood inequalities to be largely social and this has implications for government policy