Learning Outcomes:
Objectives: By the end of the course students should be able to demonstrate an awareness of the problems of conceptualising health and illness and the implications of such problems, show an appreciation of key theoretical approaches within sociology to the study of health, illness and health care, understand the relationship between states of health and social forces, appreciate the relationship between professional, health, disease and society and compare and contrast historical, sociological and anthropological perspectives of health and illness.
Indicative Module Content:
Historical, sociological and cross-cultural concepts of health and illness. The relationship between health, cultural beliefs and practices; Lay and professional interpretations of health and illness in contemporary society; Problems in measuring health and illness; The social character of health and illness; The relationship between health beliefs and health behaviour; disability, labeling and social stigma; Death dying and bereavement; The professionalisation of treatment and care; Interactions between health consumers and health professionals; Changing patterns of morbidity and mortality in the western and developing worlds. Formal and informal medicine. Social sciences and pandemics research