Comparative Health Problems And Policies - CHL32306 (CHL32306)
Institution
Wageningen University (WUR)
This summary contains summaries of the articles:
- Chapter 1– Best, J. (2013) Social Problems.
- Chapter 2– Best, J. (2013) Social Problems.
- Goodley, D. (2016). Disability studies: An interdisciplinary introduction. Sage. Chapter 1
- Chapter 4 – Best, J. (2013) Social Problems.
Batstra, L.,...
Comparative Health Problems And Policies - CHL32306 (CHL32306)
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Practice questions - Comparative Health Problems and Policies
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Some examples from this set of practice questions
1.
What are difficulties with the objectivist approach?
Answer: - Conditions that might be deemed harmful aren\'t always identified as social problems
- The same condition may be identified as a social problem for very different reasons
- Our lost of social problems includes widely diverse phenomena
2.
What is the definition of subjectivist approach?
Answer: The subjectivist approach defines social problems in terms of people\'s subjective sense that something is or not a problem.
3.
What is social construction?
Answer: The way people assign meaning to the world (mostly by using language)
4.
What are the six stages of the natural history of social problems?
Answer: 1. Claimsmaking
2. Media coverage
3. Public reaction
4. Policymaking
5. Social problems work
6. Policy outcomes
5.
What are cultural resources?
Answer: The fund of words, ideas, images and emotional reactions that most people understand to be reasonable
6.
What is the difference between impairment and disability (according to disabled people)?
Answer: Impairment: is the functional limitation within the individual caused by physical, mental or sensory impairment.
Disability: is the loss or limitation of opportunities to take part in the normal life of the community on an equal level with others due to physical and social barriers.
7.
What is medicalization?
Answer: The process of defining troubling conditions as medical problems
8.
What are foodways?
Answer: Foodways refer to the cultural and social practices that affect food consumption, including how and what communities eat, where and how they shop and what motivates their food preferences.
9.
What is the critical public health approach?
Answer: Critical public health is an approach that challenges the status quo in public health, questions what have come to be defined as problems, and breaks down fundamental assumptions by considering them within the context of the social systems in which they are created.
10.
Why is the social model not useful according to the global South?
Answer: - There is no comprehensive concept for disabled people as a category.
- Disability is just one of the problems people cope with
- Impairment touches a majority of the population (e.g. malnutrition)
- There is no government capable or willing to remove barriers
- There is insufficient medical care
- Children with impairments are often abandoned by their families
- Impairments are the result of civil war
Content preview
Week 1
Chapter 1: The social problems process
Two ways to define social problems:
1. Social problems as harmful conditions: The objectivist outlook
The usual way is to define social problems as conditions that somehow harm society: a social
problem is a social condition or pattern of behavior that has negative consequences for individuals,
our social world, or our physical world. This approach is called objectivist because it tries to couch the
definition in terms of objectively measurable characteristics of conditions. However, there are some
difficulties with making an objective definition of social problems that can distinguish between the
things that people consider social problems and what they do not:
Conditions that might be deemed harmful aren’t always identified as social problems: racism,
sexism, and heightism all have comparable effects on society, as social problems these three
forms of discrimination have not received anything like the same degree of attention. The
different treatment makes it difficult to argue that there is an evenly applied objective
standard for identifying what is or is not a social problem.
The same condition may be identified as a social problem for very different reasons: people
disagree about why a certain condition is harmful. For instance, obesity is a social problem
because it leads to discrimination or because it harms individuals and is a drain on societal
resources. Very different (even contradictory) objective standards may be used in identifying
a condition as a social problem.
Our list of social problems includes widely diverse phenomena. Any objective definition that
tries to cover a broad range of topics must be vague and speak in only the most general
terms about harm, undermining well-being, or anything else.
2. Social problems as topics of concern: The subjectivist outlook
The subjectivist approach defines social problems in terms of people’s subjective sense that
something is or is not a problem (in some societies sexism is (not) a problem). There is no objective
standard whether a condition is a social problem. Therefore, social problems should not be viewed as
a type of social condition, but as a process of responding to social conditions: the activities of
individuals or groups making assertions of grievance and claims with respect to some putative
conditions (not about conditions, but claims about conditions). Thinking systematically about social
problems requires adopting a subjectivist approach that focuses on the process by which people
identify social problems. That process involves what sociologists call social construction.
Social construction
By social construction, we mean the way people assign meaning to the world, mostly by using
language. Language is flexible: as people learn new things about the world, they devise words with
new meanings. In this way, people continually create - or construct - fresh understandings about the
world around them. Because this is a social process, sociologists refer to it as social construction.
Once we recognize that social problems are social constructions, and that what the conditions
constructed as social problems have in common is precisely that construction, then it becomes
apparent that social problems should be understood in terms of a social problems process. That is,
the study of social problems should focus on how and why particular conditions come to be
constructed as social problems. This approach is called constructionist (the perspective adopted in
this book).
The basic framework
Constructing a social problem involves a process of claimsmaking: someone (claimsmakers, i.e.
activists or experts) must bring the topic to the attention of others, by making a claim that there is a
condition that should be recognized as troubling. The social problem process requires not only that
someone make a claim, but that others react to it. There is a difference between claims and the
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