scholarly journals ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSIGHTS INTO THE USE OF RACE/ETHNICITY TO EXPLORE GENETIC CONTRIBUTIONS TO DISPARITIES IN HEALTH

2005 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
SIMON M. OUTRAM ◽  
GEORGE T. H. ELLISON
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Genetic Research ◽  
Editorial Staff ◽  
Response To Treatment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Analytical Variable ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Genetic Contributions

Anthropological insights into the use of race/ethnicity to explore genetic contributions to disparities in health were developed using in-depth qualitative interviews with editorial staff from nineteen genetics journals, focusing on the methodological and conceptual mechanisms required to make race/ethnicity a genetic variable. As such, these analyses explore how and why race/ethnicity comes to be used in the context of genetic research, set against the background of continuing critiques from anthropology and related human sciences that focus on the social construction, structural correlates and limited genetic validity of racial/ethnic categories. The analyses demonstrate how these critiques have failed to engage geneticists, and how geneticists use a range of essentially cultural devices to protect and separate their use of race/ethnicity as a genetic construct from its use as a societal and social science resource. Given its multidisciplinary, biosocial nature and the cultural gaze of its ethnographic methodologies, anthropology is well placed to explore the cultural separation of science and society, and of natural and social science disciplines. Anthropological insights into the use of race/ethnicity to explore disparities in health suggest that moving beyond genetic explanations of innate difference might benefit from a more even-handed critique of how both the natural and social sciences tend to essentialize selective elements of race/ethnicity. Drawing on the example of HIV/AIDS, this paper demonstrates how public health has been undermined by the use of race/ethnicity as an analytical variable, both as a cipher for innate genetic differences in susceptibility and response to treatment, and in its use to identify ‘core groups’ at greater risk of becoming infected and infecting others. Clearly, a tendency for biological reductionism can place many biomedical issues beyond the scope of public health interventions, while socio-cultural essentialization has tended to stigmatize ‘unhealthy behaviours’ and the communities where these are more prevalent.

Gender, Cultural Schemas, and Learning to Cook

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 607-628
Author(s):  
Merin Oleschuk
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Cultural Schemas ◽  
The Social ◽  
How People Learn ◽  
Culinary Knowledge

While public health researchers stress the importance of home-cooked meals, feminist scholars investigate inequalities in family cooking, including why women still cook much more than men. Key to understanding these inequalities is attention to how people learn to cook, a relatively understudied topic by social scientists. To address this gap, this study employs the concept of cultural schemas. Drawing from qualitative interviews and observations of 34 primary cooks in families, I identify the ubiquity of a “cooking by our mother’s side” schema. This schema privileges culinary knowledge acquired during childhood through the social reproductive work of mothers. I argue, first, that this schema reproduces gendered inequalities over generations by reinforcing women as primary transmitters of cooking knowledge. Second, it presents an overly uniform picture of food learning that obscures diversity, especially by overemphasizing the importance of childhood and masking the learning that occurs later in life. Identifying and analyzing this schema offers opportunities to reconsider predominant approaches to food learning to challenge gendered inequalities in domestic foodwork.

scholarly journals Addressing the social determinants of health at the local level: Opportunities and challenges

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (20_suppl) ◽  
pp. 47-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Fosse ◽  
M.K. Helgesen ◽  
S. Hagen ◽  
S. Torp
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Health Inequalities ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Social Gradient ◽  
New Public Health ◽  
The Social

Aims: The gradient in health inequalities reflects a relationship between health and social circumstance, demonstrating that health worsens as you move down the socio-economic scale. For more than a decade, the Norwegian National government has developed policies to reduce social inequalities in health by levelling the social gradient. The adoption of the Public Health Act in 2012 was a further movement towards a comprehensive policy. The main aim of the act is to reduce social health inequalities by adopting a Health in All Policies approach. The municipalities are regarded key in the implementation of the act. The SODEMIFA project aimed to study the development of the new public health policy, with a particular emphasis on its implementation in municipalities. Methods: In the SODEMIFA project, a mixed-methods approach was applied, and the data consisted of surveys as well as qualitative interviews. The informants were policymakers at the national and local level. Results: Our findings indicate that the municipalities had a rather vague understanding of the concept of health inequalities, and even more so, the concept of the social gradient in health. The most common understanding was that policy to reduce social inequalities concerned disadvantaged groups. Accordingly, policies and measures would be directed at these groups, rather than addressing the social gradient. Conclusions: A movement towards an increased understanding and adoption of the new, comprehensive public health policy was observed. However, to continue this process, both local and national levels must stay committed to the principles of the act.

The Biobank as Political Artifact

2015 ◽  
Vol 661 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Soo-Jin Lee
Keyword(s):  
Genomic Medicine ◽  
Genetic Research ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
Institutional Practices ◽  
Effective Interventions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Structure Knowledge ◽  
Biological Differences ◽  
Human Genetic Research

This article discusses the institutional practices of classifying and creating taxonomies of difference within biobanks (repositories that store a broad range of biological materials, including DNA) and the technical and sociopolitical priorities that ultimately create biobanks. I argue that biobanks operate as political artifacts and that the social circumstances surrounding the development and use of biobanks determine what counts as meaningful difference within human genetic research. The massive collection of human DNA, blood, and tissues is critical to genomic medicine and the development and governance of biobanks structure knowledge that will ultimately bear on how population differences are interpreted and health disparities are framed. Careful consideration of how to avoid the conflation of concepts of race, ethnicity, and nationality with biological differences is necessary to identify effective interventions that will bear positively on health.

The Social Science Program in a School of Public Health

1966 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nilo Vallejo ◽  
Gladys García ◽  
Gladys Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Science Program ◽  
The Social ◽  
School Of Public Health ◽  
Social Science Program

scholarly journals The Intersectionality Toolbox: A Resource for Teaching and Applying an Intersectional Lens in Public Health

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie J. Sabik
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Disparities ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Student Feedback ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Research And Teaching ◽  
The Social ◽  
Race Ethnicity

Intersectionality is a theoretical framework that was developed to address the ways in which people's experiences are shaped based on their intersecting social identities (e. g., race/ethnicity, gender, class, age, etc.). This approach focuses on the importance of considering power, privilege, and social structures in relation to people's access to resources, experiences of discrimination, and interpersonal interactions. An intersectional approach in public health is critical for research and teaching to illuminate health disparities and the underlying structures that create and maintain disparities. While scholars have focused primarily on how to integrate an intersectional perspective into research methods, there is a need for a clear framework for applying intersectionality effectively in public health teaching. The Intersectionality Toolbox (ITB) is a framework developed from a variety of interdisciplinary resources designed to apply an intersectional perspective to public health issues. This article describes the Intersectionality Toolbox and details how it can be utilized in public health classes. Following a course where the ITB was implemented, student feedback was sought to determine the appropriateness and effectiveness of the design, and metrics were aligned with the learning outcomes. The ITB was refined and retained to integrate into courses and assignments focused on teaching about the intersecting nature of the social determinants of health.

scholarly journals Anthropologists Respond to The Lancet EAT Commission

Bionatura ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1023-1024 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Burnett ◽  
Megan A. Carney ◽  
Lauren Carruth ◽  
Sarah Chard ◽  
Maggie xxxx Dickinson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Lead Author ◽  
Public Health Professionals ◽  
The Social ◽  
Medical Anthropologist ◽  
Culture And Health

The Lancet Commissions are widely known as aspirational pieces, providing the mechanisms for consortia and networks of researchers to organize, collate, interrogate and publish around a range of subjects. Although the Commissions are predominantly led by biomedical scientists and cognate public health professionals, many address social science questions and involve social science expertise. Medical anthropologist David Napier was lead author of the Lancet Commission on Culture and Health (2014), for example, and all commissions on global health (https://www.thelancet.com/global-health/commissions) address questions of social structure, everyday life, the social determinants of health, and global inequalities.

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