Comparative Health Problems and Policies

This course provides a critical, sociological perspective on public health issues and the ways in which they are understood and addressed in society. Topics change each year, but have included mental health, disability, food security, and care. Using the analytical tools of a constructionist social problems framework, students learn to understand the dynamics of public health issues as social problems. Throughout the course, students work on an individual essay on a health issue of their choice, ideally one that they feel deserves more attention. First, they compare the ways in which this issue is constructed by claim-makers, research, and various stakeholders (such as patients and professionals). Students will then formulate their own view of the problem and communicate it persuasively on paper and orally. The course consists of lectures, tutorials, an individual assignment and group work. Lectures aim to familiarize students with a critical sociological perspective on health problems and specific public health issues. In reading groups, students discuss assigned literature. The course is part of the MSc Communication Health and Life Sciences, specialization Health and Society. It may also be of interest to a wider audience of students who wish to develop their skills in critically analyzing the dynamics of social problems in general. With the skills acquired in this course, students will be able to view social problems through a critical sociological lens, take a well-reasoned position in debates on social problems, and advance that position.

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:

• Assess, analyse and compare diverse forms of research and theory about public health issues
• Recognize multiple and complex social processes, patterns and dynamics through which public health issues become and are widely recognized as problematic
• Compare ways by which public health issues are constructed and addressed
• Formulate one's own sociological view of a public health issue, including its causes, consequences and potential solutions
• Publicly, compellingly, and with integrity, present one's sociological understanding of a public health issue and potential solutions

Assumed Knowledge:
HSO31806 Social Inequalities in Health