Handbook on the Social Determinants of Health
Published on 28. February 2025
Book
Hardback
466 pages
978-1-0353-0208-6 (ISBN)
Description
This prescient Handbook brings together expert scholars on the social determinants of health, to examine the living and working conditions that impact the wellbeing of populations across the globe. It provides detailed analyses of international case studies, examining how factors such as class, race, gender, and disability can affect personal experiences.
Applying a critical materialist social science approach, contributors consider the sources and effects of a range of social determinants, their quality and distribution, and how they come to shape health outcomes. They highlight relevant and contemporary areas, including global health, the idea of COVID as a political economy event, and health in a neoliberalizing world. Ultimately, they identify ways to improve health through political and social change.
The Handbook on the Social Determinants of Health is a crucial resource for academics and researchers in the social sciences, including the sociology of health, political economy, political sociology, public policy, and social epidemiology. It will also be of interest to students in medicine and other health professions.
Applying a critical materialist social science approach, contributors consider the sources and effects of a range of social determinants, their quality and distribution, and how they come to shape health outcomes. They highlight relevant and contemporary areas, including global health, the idea of COVID as a political economy event, and health in a neoliberalizing world. Ultimately, they identify ways to improve health through political and social change.
The Handbook on the Social Determinants of Health is a crucial resource for academics and researchers in the social sciences, including the sociology of health, political economy, political sociology, public policy, and social epidemiology. It will also be of interest to students in medicine and other health professions.
Reviews / Votes
'An accessible and engaging exploration of the "social determinants of health", which combines historical accounts of the term's origins with contemporary analyses of unequal health experiences. The book argues that we are experiencing a global "polycrisis" and proposes that "post-capitalist" solutions are needed to achieve more equitable and sustainable outcomes.' -- Katherine Smith, University of Strathclyde, UK 'This volume provides a much-needed critical, contemporary and global analysis of the social determinants of health in an increasingly unequal world. With chapters by leading experts from across the world, I recommend it to anyone who wants to understand and reduce global health inequalities.' -- Clare Bambra, Newcastle University, UKMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cheltenham
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 244 mm
Width: 169 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-0353-0208-6 (9781035302086)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Edited by Toba Bryant, Associate Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ontario Tech University, Canada
Content
Contents
PART I INTRODUCTION
1 Introduction to the Handbook on the Social Determinants of Health 2
Toba Bryant
PART II DEFINING THE SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH
2 Historical perspectives 13
Stella Medvedyuk and Dennis Raphael
3 Conceptualizing the social determinants of health: the value of a global
political economy of health perspective 27
Courtney McNamara
4 Pathways to health and illness 34
Stephen Bezruchka
5 COVID as a political economy event: pandemic and syndemic 49
Robert Chernomas and Ian Hudson
PART III KEY SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH
6 The level and distribution of income and wealth 65
Gerry McCartney
7 Employment, health, and the laws of accumulation 81
Scott Aquanno and Toba Bryant
8 Early life and the social determinants of health 92
Stephen Bezruchka
9 Food security 111
Zsofia Mendly-Zambo
10 Housing (un)affordability, (in)security and (in)justice as social
determinants of health 126
Nicola Livingstone
11 Providing public income support may advance public health: recent
federal policy developments in Canada's social safety net 140
Michael J. Prince
PART IV SPECIAL POPULATIONS: THE ISMs AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION
12 Huronia's lessons: how ableist violence determines health 153
Jen Rinaldi
13 Classism and health inequities: what the body remembers 165
Elizabeth McGibbon
14 The political economy of racialized health inequities: a panoramic view 189
Arnel M. Borras
15 Intersectional and embodied: migration as a social determinant of health 203
Denise L. Spitzer
16 Metropolitan health in a neoliberalizing world 219
Ted Schrecker
17 Colonialism and Indigenous peoples 234
Darrel Manitowabi
18 Decolonizing social determinants of health? South American
perspectives and future challenges 247
Cristian Montenegro and Felipe Szabzon
PART V GEOGRAPHIES OF SPECIAL IMPORTANCE
19 An overview of social determinants of health in Africa 260
Morris D. C. Komakech
20 The social determinants of superbugs: antimicrobial resistance in South Asia 277
Katia S. Mohindra, Fariha Haseen and Madison Adams
21 Social determinants of health in Continental Europe and the relevance
of migration 292
Ursula Trummer, Sonja Novak-Zezula and Ina Teresa Wilczewska
22 The establishment of a market model of healthcare in Chile: 1973-90 305
Jaime Llambias-Wolff
23 Policies to address the social determinants of health: a Nordic perspective 315
Elisabeth Fosse
24 Social and commercial determinants of health and health equity in Australia 327
Fran Baum and Toby Freeman
PART VI EMERGING THEMES
25 Economic globalization 340
Ted Schrecker
26 Austerity, neoliberalism and population health 356
Gerry McCartney
27 Crisis of capitalism: social welfare states or socialist states as the way forward? 371
Dennis Raphael and Toba Bryant
28 The Anthropocenes: collisions with the social determinants of health 385
Elizabeth McGibbon
PART VII MOVING FORWARD
29 The promise of left politics 404
Dennis Pilon
30 Morbid symptoms: edging towards the end of the neoliberal age 415
Simon Winlow
31 Challenging power and structural inequality through intersectional
movement building 426
Shauna MacKinnon
PART VIII CONCLUSION
32 Conclusion: prospects for political and social transformation 438
Toba Bryant
PART I INTRODUCTION
1 Introduction to the Handbook on the Social Determinants of Health 2
Toba Bryant
PART II DEFINING THE SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH
2 Historical perspectives 13
Stella Medvedyuk and Dennis Raphael
3 Conceptualizing the social determinants of health: the value of a global
political economy of health perspective 27
Courtney McNamara
4 Pathways to health and illness 34
Stephen Bezruchka
5 COVID as a political economy event: pandemic and syndemic 49
Robert Chernomas and Ian Hudson
PART III KEY SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH
6 The level and distribution of income and wealth 65
Gerry McCartney
7 Employment, health, and the laws of accumulation 81
Scott Aquanno and Toba Bryant
8 Early life and the social determinants of health 92
Stephen Bezruchka
9 Food security 111
Zsofia Mendly-Zambo
10 Housing (un)affordability, (in)security and (in)justice as social
determinants of health 126
Nicola Livingstone
11 Providing public income support may advance public health: recent
federal policy developments in Canada's social safety net 140
Michael J. Prince
PART IV SPECIAL POPULATIONS: THE ISMs AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION
12 Huronia's lessons: how ableist violence determines health 153
Jen Rinaldi
13 Classism and health inequities: what the body remembers 165
Elizabeth McGibbon
14 The political economy of racialized health inequities: a panoramic view 189
Arnel M. Borras
15 Intersectional and embodied: migration as a social determinant of health 203
Denise L. Spitzer
16 Metropolitan health in a neoliberalizing world 219
Ted Schrecker
17 Colonialism and Indigenous peoples 234
Darrel Manitowabi
18 Decolonizing social determinants of health? South American
perspectives and future challenges 247
Cristian Montenegro and Felipe Szabzon
PART V GEOGRAPHIES OF SPECIAL IMPORTANCE
19 An overview of social determinants of health in Africa 260
Morris D. C. Komakech
20 The social determinants of superbugs: antimicrobial resistance in South Asia 277
Katia S. Mohindra, Fariha Haseen and Madison Adams
21 Social determinants of health in Continental Europe and the relevance
of migration 292
Ursula Trummer, Sonja Novak-Zezula and Ina Teresa Wilczewska
22 The establishment of a market model of healthcare in Chile: 1973-90 305
Jaime Llambias-Wolff
23 Policies to address the social determinants of health: a Nordic perspective 315
Elisabeth Fosse
24 Social and commercial determinants of health and health equity in Australia 327
Fran Baum and Toby Freeman
PART VI EMERGING THEMES
25 Economic globalization 340
Ted Schrecker
26 Austerity, neoliberalism and population health 356
Gerry McCartney
27 Crisis of capitalism: social welfare states or socialist states as the way forward? 371
Dennis Raphael and Toba Bryant
28 The Anthropocenes: collisions with the social determinants of health 385
Elizabeth McGibbon
PART VII MOVING FORWARD
29 The promise of left politics 404
Dennis Pilon
30 Morbid symptoms: edging towards the end of the neoliberal age 415
Simon Winlow
31 Challenging power and structural inequality through intersectional
movement building 426
Shauna MacKinnon
PART VIII CONCLUSION
32 Conclusion: prospects for political and social transformation 438
Toba Bryant