scholarly journals Infusing fundamental cause theory with features of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic power

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerry Veenstra
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Symbolic Power ◽  
Health It ◽  
Fundamental Causes ◽  
Flexible Resources ◽  
Fundamental Cause ◽  
Fundamental Cause Theory ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Consequences Of Disease ◽  
Socioeconomic Health Inequalities

The theory of fundamental causes is one of the more influential attempts to provide a theoretical infrastructure for the strong associations between indicators of socioeconomic status (education, income, occupation) and health. It maintains that people of higher socioeconomic status have greater access to flexible resources such as money, knowledge, prestige, power, and beneficial social connections that they can use to reduce their risks of morbidity and mortality and minimize the consequences of disease once it occurs. However, several key aspects of the theory remain underspecified, compromising its ability to provide truly compelling explanations for socioeconomic health inequalities. In particular, socioeconomic status is an assembly of indicators that do not necessarily cohere in a straightforward way, the flexible resources that disproportionately accrue to higher status people are not clearly defined, and the distinction between socioeconomic status and resources is ambiguous. I attempt to address these definitional issues by infusing fundamental cause theory with features of a well-known theory of socioeconomic stratification in the sociological literature—Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic power.

scholarly journals Educational Attainment and Staphylococcus aureus Colonization in a Hispanic Border Community: Testing Fundamental Cause Theory

mSphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven D. Barger ◽  
Monica R. Lininger ◽  
Robert T. Trotter ◽  
Heidi A. Wayment ◽  
Mimi Mbegbu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Staphylococcus Aureus ◽  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Home Ownership ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Border Community ◽  
Fundamental Cause ◽  
Fundamental Cause Theory ◽  
Education Gradient

ABSTRACT This study was carried out to evaluate hypotheses generated by fundamental cause theory regarding the socioeconomic status (SES) gradient in colonization with Staphylococcus aureus among Hispanic and non-Hispanic adults living in a border community. Participants (n = 613) recruited in naturally occurring small groups at public and private sites throughout Yuma County, AZ, completed a sociodemographic survey and swabbed their palms, noses, and throats to sample microbial flora. Positive S. aureus colonization among non-Hispanic white participants was nominally higher (39.0%; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 32.4 to 46.1%) than that in Hispanics (31.3%; 95% CI = 26.4 to 36.8%), but there was no education gradient for the sample overall (incidence rate ratio = 1.00; 95% CI = 0.90 to 1.12) or within each ethnic group separately. The education gradient between Hispanic and non-Hispanic whites was statistically equivalent. Results were consistent when home ownership was used as the SES indicator. These data show that S. aureus colonization is not linked to two different SES indicators or Hispanic ethnicity. S. aureus colonization may be considered a less preventable health risk that is outside the influence of SES-based resources. IMPORTANCE Unlike some types of S. aureus infections, S. aureus colonization is not associated with ethnicity or educational attainment and thus may be outside the influence of socioeconomic status-based resources typically mobilized to avoid or mitigate preventable health risks. This assessment of a clinically silent risk that usually precedes infections may illustrate a boundary of fundamental cause theory.

scholarly journals Racial Capitalism: A Fundamental Cause of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic Inequities in the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 504-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Whitney N. Laster Pirtle
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Medical Knowledge ◽  
The United States ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Racial Capitalism ◽  
Multiple Risk Factors ◽  
Flexible Resources ◽  
Fundamental Cause ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Consequences Of Disease

Racial capitalism is a fundamental cause of the racial and socioeconomic inequities within the novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) in the United States. The overrepresentation of Black death reported in Detroit, Michigan is a case study for this argument. Racism and capitalism mutually construct harmful social conditions that fundamentally shape COVID-19 disease inequities because they (a) shape multiple diseases that interact with COVID-19 to influence poor health outcomes; (b) affect disease outcomes through increasing multiple risk factors for poor, people of color, including racial residential segregation, homelessness, and medical bias; (c) shape access to flexible resources, such as medical knowledge and freedom, which can be used to minimize both risks and the consequences of disease; and (d) replicate historical patterns of inequities within pandemics, despite newer intervening mechanisms thought to ameliorate health consequences. Interventions should address social inequality to achieve health equity across pandemics.

A Retrospective on Fundamental Cause Theory: State of the Literature and Goals for the Future

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean A.P. Clouston ◽  
Bruce G. Link
Keyword(s):  
Social Stratification ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Flexible Resources ◽  
Fundamental Cause ◽  
Fundamental Cause Theory ◽  
Protective Strategies ◽  
New Applications

Fundamental cause theory (FCT) was originally proposed to explain how socioeconomic inequalities in health emerged and persisted over time. The concept was that higher socioeconomic status helped some people to avoid risks and adopt protective strategies using flexible resources: knowledge, money, power, prestige, and beneficial social connections. As a sociological theory, FCT addressed this issue by calling on social stratification, stigma, and racism as they affected medical treatments and health outcomes. The last comprehensive review was completed a decade ago. Since then, FCT has been tested, and new applications have extended central features. The current review consolidates key foci in the literature in order to guide future research in the field. Notable themes emerged around types of resources and their usage, approaches used to test the theory, and novel extensions. We conclude that after 25 years of use, there remain crucial questions to be addressed. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Sociology, Volume 47 is July 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

THE RACE AGAINST TIME

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 497-514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naa Oyo A. Kwate
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Black People ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Determinant ◽  
Material Resources ◽  
Flexible Resources ◽  
Fundamental Cause ◽  
Fundamental Cause Theory ◽  
States Experience ◽  
The Life Course

AbstractIn this paper I argue that time is a social determinant of health, and one that perpetuates racial health inequalities. Specifically, Black people in the United States experience time losses across numerous domains throughout the life course, putting them at risk of disproportionate morbidity and mortality. Fundamental cause theory holds that social conditions structure health through pathways to resources including money, knowledge, power, prestige, freedom, and social networks. Racialized time indirectly harms health by disrupting or denying access to these flexible resources and by undoing utility among those that are obtained. Racialized time harms health directly when it produces stress and exacerbates conditions of racial subordination. I examine racialized time in three categories: 1) Black people spending too much time to meet basic needs; 2) Black people having less time spent on them than is required; and 3) lost years of (good quality of) life. Linkages between time and health disadvantage exist in material resources, interactions with the state, intimate lives, public space, and cognitive processes.

Is Fringe Baking A Component of Socially Determined Health?

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney L Hundley ◽  
Richard W. Wilson ◽  
John Chenault ◽  
Jamie L. Smimble
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Health Status ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Health It ◽  
Lower Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Lower Socioeconomic ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Indirect Association ◽  
Zip Code

This was an exploratory study to assess the association between density of fringe lenders (e.g.payday) and health status. For Louisville, Kentucky, ZIP code level data on hospitalizations and mortalityrates as health measures were compared to fringe bank locations. We found lower socioeconomic status(SES) positively correlated with greater frequency of fringe banks; rates of illness appear to be higher in ZIPcodes with more fringe banks, but this finding was not statistically significant. In conclusion, neighbor-hoods between higher frequencies of fringe banks appear to have poorer health; it is premature to rule in orrule out a direct or indirect association between neighborhood presence of fringe banks, but there is enoughevidence to justify additional research to put any conclusions on a firmer footing.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document