Health inequalities between Palestinians and Jews in Israel: The role of extreme spatial segregation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ameed Saabneh
Author(s):  
Yusra Ribhi Shawar ◽  
Jennifer Prah Ruger

Careful investigations of the political determinants of health that include the role of power in health inequalities—systematic differences in health achievements among different population groups—are increasing but remain inadequate. Historically, much of the research examining health inequalities has been influenced by biomedical perspectives and focused, as such, on ‘downstream’ factors. More recently, there has been greater recognition of more ‘distal’ and ‘upstream’ drivers of health inequalities, including the impacts of power as expressed by actors, as well as embedded in societal structures, institutions, and processes. The goal of this chapter is to examine how power has been conceptualised and analysed to date in relation to health inequalities. After reviewing the state of health inequality scholarship and the emerging interest in studying power in global health, the chapter presents varied conceptualisations of power and how they are used in the literature to understand health inequalities. The chapter highlights the particular disciplinary influences in studying power across the social sciences, including anthropology, political science, and sociology, as well as cross-cutting perspectives such as critical theory and health capability. It concludes by highlighting strengths and limitations of the existing research in this area and discussing power conceptualisations and frameworks that so far have been underused in health inequalities research. This includes potential areas for future inquiry and approaches that may expand the study of as well as action on addressing health inequality.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 133 (4) ◽  
pp. e884-e895 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. B. Ortega ◽  
J. R. Ruiz ◽  
I. Labayen ◽  
D. Martinez-Gomez ◽  
G. Vicente-Rodriguez ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Lynette Reid

Abstract Within-country social inequalities in health have widened while global health inequalities have (with some exceptions) narrowed since the Second World War. On commonly accepted prioritarian and sufficientist views of justice and health, these two trends together would be acceptable: the wealthiest of the wealthy are pulling ahead, but the worst off are catching up and more are achieving sufficiency. Such commitments to priority or sufficiency are compatible with a common “development” narrative about economic and social changes that accompany changes (“transitions”) in population health. I set out a very simple version of health egalitarianism (without commitment to any particular current theory of justice) and focus on two common objections to egalitarianism. Priority and sufficiency both address the levelling down and formalism objections, but these objections are distinct: giving content to equality (I argue here) places in question the claimed normative superiority of priority and sufficiency. Using examples of the role of antimicrobials in both these trends – and the future role of AMR – I clarify (first) the multiple forms and dimensions of justice at play in health, and (second) the different mechanisms at work in generating the two current patterns (seen in life course narratives and narratives of political economy). The “accelerated transition” that narrowed global health inequalities is fed by anti-microbials (among other technology transfers). It did not accelerate but replaced the causal processes by which current HICs achieved the transition (growing and shared economic prosperity and widening political franchise). The impact of AMR on widening social inequalities in health in HICs will be complex: inequality has been fed in part by tertiary care enabled by antimicrobials; AMR might erode the solidarity underlying universal health systems as the well-off seek to maintain current expectations of curative and rehabilitative surgery and chemotherapy while AMR mounts. In light of both speculations about the impact of AMR on social and global health inequalities, I close with practical and with theoretical reflection. I briefly indicate the practical importance of understanding AMR from the perspective of health justice for policy response. Then, from a broader perspective, I argue that the content by which I meet the formalism objection demonstrates that the two trends (broadening within-country inequality and narrowing global inequality) are selective and biased samples of a centuries-long pattern of widening social inequalities in health. We are not in the midst of a process of “catching up”. In light of the long-term pattern described here, is the pursuit of sufficiency or priority morally superior to the pursuit of equality as a response to concrete suffering – or do they rationalize a process more objectively described as the best-off continuing to take the largest share of one of the most important benefits of economic development?


Author(s):  
Boglárka MÉREINÉ BERKI ◽  
György MÁLOVICS ◽  
Janka TÓTH ◽  
Remus CREŢAN

Even more emphasis is set on social capital in understanding, analyzing and planning poverty alleviation measures and policies. However, our understanding of the role of social capital in alleviating extreme poverty, enhancing social mobility and fighting spatial segregation, is still inadequate. Within the present study, we aim to examine and understand (1) the mechanisms that relate to social capital in the case of the segregated urban underclass and (2) the potential interventions for poverty alleviation concerning social capital. In order to examine the dynamics of poverty alleviation measures related to social capital, special attention is paid to the experiences of a cooperative network aimed at creating artificial bridging capital through the introduction of interpersonal relations locally between the middle class and underclass, the patronage network, which was initiated within a broader participatory action research (PAR) process. Our results show that bonding ties and related specific norms as tools for everyday survival easily overwrite system integration efforts for poverty alleviation and social mobility with long-term and uncertain benefits for the segregated urban underclass. In order to overcome this failure, social institutions should place more emphasis on developing meaningful interpersonal relations with the underclass since these might be able to provide personalized help, facilitation, and approximation of perspectives - all being vital for poverty alleviation and social mobility.


Author(s):  
Sarah Horton ◽  
Judith C. Barker

This chapter combines ethnographic and social epidemiological approaches to analyze the causes of Latino children’s high rates of oral disease as well as their cumulative effects. Social epidemiological approaches suggest the complex interplay of biology and social structure at multiple levels in creating health inequalities. How can we use ethnography to operationalize this model, illustrating the varying role of familial, clinical, and sociopolitical contexts in creating farmworker youths’ health inequalities? Moreover, how can social epidemiology heed the insights of ethnography, and what happens when we assign equal truth status to parents’ “local” knowledge and to expert knowledge of epidemiological reports? This chapter serves as a lens both for understanding the roots of farmworker children’s poor oral health and as a thought experiment for considering the provocative methodological and epistemological questions posed by an interdisciplinary dialogue on health inequalities. Using a life course perspective, we examine the way that farmworker young adults’ poor oral health feeds back into a system of social inequality. Using the lens of oral health, this chapter presents a vivid argument for why health inequalities are cause for policy intervention—that is, why they are a matter not only of fairness but also of equity and justice.


Author(s):  
Robert B. Lloyd ◽  
Melissa Haussman ◽  
Patrick James

It is estimated that populations in Africa are afflicted with 24% of the global load of disease with only 13% of the population. This chapter provides theoretical suggestions for studying why this is so. Among these theories are area studies, Africa studies and the World Health Organization’s Social Determinants of Health Framework, which relates social inequality to the study of political and health-providing institutions. The chapter lays out the book’s three case studies and our look at the role of national and international health and secular ngo’s in helping to remedy gendered health inequalities. It lays out the MDG framework of 2000, to be discussed in succeeding chapters.


2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 655-655
Author(s):  
M. Moreno ◽  
E. Glennon ◽  
L. Thiru ◽  
C. Sexton ◽  
J.D. Coplan ◽  
...  

BackgroundIn this study we examine potential mechanisms by which the stimulation of hippocampal neurogenesis may generate an antidepressant effect.MethodsStudy-1: Adult male rats (N = 24) were trained to segregate relevant from irrelevant spatial cues (spatial segregation); tested on this task four and 8-weeks late; then exposed (on week 8) to a modified version of the task that conflicted with the memory of the initially learned experience (mnemonic segregation); and then euthanized to detect hippocampal neurogenesis. Study-2: Adult rats (N = 24) were trained in the spatial segregation task; three-days later, half were re-tested on the same task and half the tested on the modified task (mnemonic segregation); and euthanized immediately to detect neurons that were synaptically active during task performance.ResultsStudy-1: Good performers on the modified task (mnemonic segregation) had significantly greater rates of hippocampal neurogenesis, but the increase was only in immature neurons and not in new neurons that had completed maturation. Performance on spatial segregation task was unrelated to proficiency in mnemonic segregation or rates of neurogenesis. Study-2: Performance on the mnemonic segregation unrelated to neurogenesis rates, but inversely correlated to synaptic activation of mature hippocampal neurons, which in turn inversely correlated with immature neuron rates.ConclusionTaken together, the data suggests that neurogenesis facilitates detection of subtle changes to experiences established over several weeks (not days); this occurs prior to forming synapses; and maybe associated with suppression of mature hippocampal neurons that presumably mediate older, interfering, experiences.


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