Introductions - Conflict Theory

Question 1

Conflict Theory

Answer 1

• The basic assumption that a capitalist society is composed of competing interest groups (built on benefits for some & not others); founded on social & economic systems of society
• Drawing upon Karl Marx, this theory focuses on power struggles and defines inequality through economic and political social relations
• Unlike structural functionalism, conflict theory argues that a capitalist society is built off benefiting some and depriving others & social change/class conflict

Question 2

Political Economy

Answer 2

• Critical analysis of the political, economic, and social relations of the capitalist social system
• The political economy of healthcare and social inequalities in the distribution of illness and access to healthcare services (smth we would look at through this lens)
• How does the medical system serve as a system of control via exploitation and social inequality?

Question 3

Three ways to distinguish Conflict Theory

Answer 3

1) Under this paradigm, the sociologists work is to discover & document injustice
2) All knowledge is rooted in social, material & historical contexts
3) Sociological research methods must acknowledge social economic & historical circumstances
- How does drive for conflict cause adverse health problems in society

Question 4

Who has the power within health and illness?

Answer 4

• Medical professions hold large amounts of power w/in health and illness, the medical people are seen as more affluent socioeconomically, MD vs PhD (a perspective criticized with this theory)
• Who determines what counts as a disease (what symptoms)
• Who controls diagnostic processes?
• Who determines legitimate treatment courses?
• Who creates knowledge & has power to decide which knowledge is more valued & what proves that? (Western vs NonW. medicine)
• How women’s health is treated

Question 5

Medical Dominance

Answer 5

• Conflict approaches examine medical dominance and how certain forms of organized medicine holds its dominance and benefits w/in capitalist system and the structure gives them a certain power
• Power is spread unequally between and within groups (who makes more capital & who has more say & influence, neurosurgeon vs GP)
• Not everyone feels welcome in medical space

Question 6

Eliot Freidson

Answer 6

• Argues that the medical profession gained this power through intense political negotiations and public persuasion (who can or can’t prescribe drugs)
• Happened over time and was impacted by medical ideologies
• How we culturally value med profession & what we include w/in that and how medical professionals benefit in an economic system

Question 7

Freidson’s question

Answer 7

• How do we react to the overwhelming power that the medical field has on our health & bodies?
• Social therapeutic methods: social welfare programs, labour laws, environmental protection standards
• Ex. Environmental racism -> the workers live near the polluted site, where the owners of production live off site (Indigenous living near pipelines, poor racialized communities & how their neighbourhoods are treated hygienically). A response to med professionals making a lot of money off of our ailments w/o us benefiting from it other than greater state of mind/more healthy bodies
• All reactions towards medical dominance in a capitalist societies -> socio-economic class vs access to healthcare

Question 8

Gentrification

Answer 8

• Changes to historically disinvested neighbourhoods which are heavily influenced by economic demographics
• Typically see a change in the racial composition -> typically an increase in White and Asian populations
• Eerily similar to a phenomenon in the 30s called redlining, a term to describe the racial segregation in housing through the law restricted access to housing
• Included restricted access to housing loans particularly towards Afro-Americans
• As consequence, marginalized communities are displaced from neighbourhoods which would otherwise have resources that would increase health and healthy behaviours

Question 9

Health Economics

Answer 9

What will improve health & how health is understood w/in the social world, while also looking at how disease & ill treatments are received by consumers

Question 10

Three major aspects of health economics

Answer 10

1. Demand
2. Suppy
3. Economic Evaluation

Question 11

Demand

Answer 11

• We calculate the benefits of being healthy vs the loss of capital being ill
  a. Demanding health care when individuals need it (institutional & personal responsibility)
  b. The influence of capitalist behaviours (trade-offs) - make an income, but also partake in health promoting activities
  c. People get older -> they need more health care services -> they have worked enough to gross an income to afford such services

Question 12

Suppy

Answer 12

Health is transactional

Question 13

Economic Evaluation

Answer 13

a. The cost benefits of healthcare and healthcare services aids policy and resource (Macro-level source (health care, govt & policy)