This week’s lecture was based on the reading material by Germov’s book, and the focus was on social imagination and health. Some key points are that social issues affect the health of a person, and thus they are essential factors in determining health and wellbeing. Another point is that social imagination has four interlinked parts which help in understanding and analyzing issues from a sociological perspective. Also, in this chapter, we learnt the definition of social imagination which is the state of mind which helps one understand their issues by linking them to the general social problems. I also learnt about the difference between the biomedical and sociocultural models of health. The difference is that the former is based on diagnosing and focuses on the individual while separating them from other factors that influence their health, while the latter focuses on what surrounds an individual and what is their influence to his health status. I agree with the social model since not only physiological factors affect health, but everything else that surrounds an individual. So, for health to be fully realized, the biological, psychological and social factors have to be in a complete state.
Marmot, M., & Allen, J. J. (2014). Social determinants of health equity.
Lecture 2: Prejudice and practices- values and evidence in health promotion.
For this week’s lecture, based on the assignment, my thoughts on Germov’s article are that he has discussed important health matters. How he has brought on the subject of social imagination and connecting them to health is something commendable. The article just confirmed my thoughts that health is a social issue that can be solved when from a sociological perspective.
My family has shaped me into being a person who is cautious of their health and take personal responsibility in ensuring that I am fit. This has significantly shaped me and by extension, so has my culture since my family values our cultural heritage. However, over time, my values have changed, and this is due to exposure to a plethora of information. I have come to value a healthy mental state which is something I had previously not bothered much about. And based on this perspective, I believe a health issue that interests me is mental health problems such as depression.
Kvalsvig, A. (2018). Wellbeing and Mental Distress in Aotearoa New Zealand: Snapshot 2016. Health Promotion Agency.
Lecture 3: Food, fad, families and fats.
In this lecture, we learnt about the obesity epidemic that is affecting children and young adults. Also, we learnt about the bio pedagogical interventions which are targeted to manage and regulate the weight and health of people. Also, there are several figure-heads that encompass and govern individuals, especially children. Therefore, the role of parents is scrutinized in the anti-obesity discourse, whereby the mothers are given the primary responsibility of managing the child’s eating and weight. However, they are the ones who are disproportionately blamed and marked as irresponsible parents when their child is overweight. Therefore, in the anti-obesity discourse, parents’ responsibility has been the main focus whereby they have to influence their children’s eating behaviours. I think this is a good strategy since parents bear a great influence on their kids, especially when the children are young. Thus, they can use their practical agency to influence their eating behaviours in their early life, and the acquired behaviour will be practised throughout their lives.
Wolfson, J. A., Gollust, S. E., Niederdeppe, J., & Barry, C. L. (2015). The role of parents in public views of strategies to address childhood obesity in the United States. The Milbank Quarterly, 93(1), 73-111.
Lecture 4: Schools, health and self in a world of “wellbeing”.
From this week’s reading, we learnt how health had been emphasized in all platforms such as the media. It has dominated every news and entertainment avenues and facilitated the deep embedding of health consciousness in communities. With such emphasis, health has resulted to becoming a public pedagogy, and terms such as healthism have been coined which is placing focus solely on individual actions which that are relevant in determining the health of a person and therefore need attention. This perspective is also linked to health education and promotion whereby the former is based on individual behavioural practices, and the latter on empowerment. Health education has also been influenced by neoliberalism since this notion shapes what people know on health education and emphasizes personal responsibility. I think it is important to emphasis on individual responsibility on issues related to health. But also, the focus should also be put on other factors and not the individual alone since many things come into play that influences the health of a person.
Sharma, M. (2016). Theoretical foundations of health education and health promotion. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Lecture 5: Sociology of diagnosis.
This week’s lecture was on the sociology of diagnosis. We learnt the definition of diagnosis, which is examining and making a judgment based on the results gotten. Mostly, diagnosis is associated with the field of medicine. Also, we learnt about what diagnosis does, and one is that it identifies where the problem is, and the second is that it helps to prescribe the right medication to treat the identified issue. On the sociological perspective, diagnosis is something which has changed over the past few years and that it is an important aspect of life. It also has its importance, and some include that one can know what to do about an issue, grants individual access to treatment and its provided with the necessary resources to facilitate further research. Then there was a Youtube video, whereby a woman was being diagnosed with stage IV ovarian cancer, and the doctor was explaining to her the treatments available and that her life would be altered. I see the usefulness of diagnosis, especially in the video, whereby the woman’s cancer was ‘insidious’. One can ask, is diagnosing just looking for what is present or not, or is there more to so that its efficiency can be enhanced. Well, there is more to it than just judging if an issue is there or not.
Hegedus, E. J. (2010). Studies of quality and impact in clinical diagnosis and decision-making. The Journal of manual & manipulative therapy, 18(1), 5.
Part 2
Earl, L. (2020). ‘Who likes fish? And I don’t mean fish fingers! ‘Taste education, culinary capital, and distinction in a rural middle-class primary school. Cambridge Journal of Education, 50(1), 77-93.
Earl (2020) focuses on a middle-class primary school’s culinary capital. The author studied how schools can influence culinary capital which, by extension, influences the eating habits of students. She also investigated how it is acquired and how it raises concerns on access to food, food poverty and healthy meals. The key points discussed were that social status and culture influence one’s eating practices. Also, Earl (2020) explores how schools are influencing children in the middle-class taste. And the expectation of schools to teach on this subject matter. However, she emphasized that context matters and each case should be treated separately in regard to taste education since schools are different.
I agree with the author on taste education, especially the part that context matters. There cannot be a one-size-fits-all school feeding plan and tastes. Each is unique on its own. I also agree with the author’s point of view on how the statement “eat healthy” is simplified while in the actual sense, it is practically complex. The author provided the arguments made by researchers based on this and emphasized that it is important for food practices to be researched on a wider spectrum rather than just simplifying them. With these have my ideas been confirmed, eating practices cannot be easily changed.
Fitzpatrick, K., Leahy, D., Webber, M., Gilbert, J., Lupton, D., & Aggleton, P. (2019). Critical health education studies: Reflections on a new conference and this themed symposium. Health Education Journal, 78(6), 621-632.
This article was written by scholars who had attended a conference. These people then proceeded to write their thoughts and experiences in the conference which was organized to disrupt the traditional forms of health education and present modern forms that are critical to the theory and practice of health education. Fitzpatrick and Leahy organized the symposium and wanted to correct the lack of subjectivity and present critical health education which draws from several fields and looks at health in its totality and complexity. Their reason for this is that they have seen how the traditional health education project falls short and that they take seriously the social determinants of health. Webber, the other author described what she spoke of in the conference which was what constituted to the wellbeing of the Maori. Gilbert spoke of affirmative consent, and Lupton described how the conference expanded her thinking and that with health, there is a more than human dimension which should be focused on.
I agree with the authors view on disrupting the old health education studies. these interventions have been very objective and with these have they have marginalized minority groups. Fitzpatrick et al, point at how they have resorted to changing such and how they faced opposition, but emphasis on how critical health education studies are important.
What striked me most is how the Maori’s descent is important to their wellbeing. That togetherness is important for them as well, whereby when they can connect to their past, present and future selves, then can they attain wellness and health. Another thing is on affirmative consent whereby I learnt that it there is more to wanting or not wanting and that this is linked to ‘racialized histories’ based on the meaning of seeking and initiating sex in one’s sexual life.
Lupton, D. (2012). Fat: 2-Thinking about Fat. A Review of Different Perspectives. Routledge. ProQuest EBook Central.
Lupton in this chapter looks at the different perspectives present fat bodies. First, she describes the anti-obesity view and then discusses the viewpoints present in different forms of literature such as academic ones and mainstream or popular literature. For instance, the anti-obesity perspective is one that has been given by various people ranging from the political domain to the health promotion sector. And what is said is that obesity is a problem that is increasingly becoming bigger and bigger thus, it became an epidemic in western and developing countries. And with this, are there increased risks of chronic conditions such as heart diseases and diabetes. Other perspectives have been given which challenge the anti-obesity narrative and one includes that being overweight does not necessarily predispose one to illnesses. Such views have been provided and have been backed up by some scientific findings.
What I like about the author is that she is neutral in this chapter. She does not lean to one certain perspective but she just explains what they are. I agree on such kind of a stance especially on this crucial topic. And with this, I have learnt that having a neutral position is important. Another aspect that I have learnt is that ethics is important since one can be hurt and have a negative body image. This information has just been resounded in my mind and I agree that one should be cautious and not over emphasize on matters related to weight.