Course syllabus

How is disease socially produced?

What produces health inequalities?

What are health concerns associated with cell phones, WIFI and 5G?

What does the physician's power consist of? And where does it come from?

Who decides the way disease should be addressed?

What information sources do you trust regarding health matters? Why?

Course Description

Welcome to “Sociology of Health, Illness, and Medicine” (also known as Medical Sociology). It is my pleasure to be your instructor for this course. The above questions are just some of the many we will explore over the course of the semester, and I look forward to working through the thought-provoking readings and videos with all of you.

This course introduces students to sociological perspectives vis-a-vis health, illness and the practice of medicine. This includes understanding the social forces that produce disease and health inequalities, as well as the processes that shape what gets recognised as disease and the preferred means of treating it. We will also explore how patients experience disease, the source of physician power, and alternative ways of organising healthcare systems.

Beyond analysing the source of the problems, this course provides resources that will empower you in your encounters with the medical system and help you improve your world. Towards that end, I will ask you to choose a disease to focus on over the course of the semester and I will give you resources for you to better understand the sources of the disease and to criticise both mainstream understandings of disease and the treatments associated with them.

You will find I have a student-centered pedagogical approach, which means I am committed to helping you discover and nurture your intellectual interests. So, please give some thought to the issues and questions you're interested in exploring over the course of the semester, and then let me know about them... either in class, via e-mail (m.vallee@auckland.ac.nz), or in office hours...

You will also find this course relies heavily on communication, and below you'll find additional information about medical sociology and the course learning objectives. Next month I will upload more information about the course, including assessment information...

DETAILED COURSE DESCRIPTION

Medical sociology is one of the fastest growing subfields in sociology, and is so large that no single course could cover it in its entirety. By necessity, this course leaves many topics virtually untouched. For example, we will not address mental health/mental illness or bioethics. We will instead focus on a number of topics that have concerned the field in the past, and some that have emerged more recently as central concerns.

Specific topics to be addressed include: 1) social factors that contribute to disease (i.e. the “social production of disease”; 2) the unequal distribution of disease; 3) the social construction of “illness” (i.e. the process by which a condition comes to be seen as a medical problem); 4) the social construction of treatment practices; 5) patient experiences of illness and healthcare; 6) the social organisation of medicine; and 7) alternative ways of organising healthcare.

This is an exciting time to be studying health, illness and medicine as medical systems throughout the world are experiencing significant challenges and prospective change, and are thus in need of people who have the skills and perspectives to help with those challenges.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES FOR THIS COURSE

1) To think critically about definitions of health and illness, and the way our healthcare system currently addresses illness.

2) Explore the structural relations of power that shape disease prevalence, and analyse how those structures reproduce power and inequality.

3) Develop a sociological understanding of our healthcare system. Who benefits from the current system? Why? Who doesn’t? How?

4) Develop a better understanding for how treatment practices become accepted as the norm.

5) Gain a sensitivity about how patients experience illness.

6) Develop a better understanding of what the medical profession's power consists of, and how they have built up that power over time.

7) Deepen our appreciation for the value of sociology and sociological perspectives in examining health-related issues.

8) Have you reflect on your own experience of health, illness and health care. This includes reflecting on how the course’s knowledge can alter your life in the future.

9) Have you develop your own personal philosophy about health, illness, and health care.

10) Have you develop skills to better follow and participate in contemporary debates about health care.

11) Gain tools with which to evaluate a nation's medical care system

Course delivery format:

3 hours of lectures

 Workload and deadlines for submission of coursework:           

The University of Auckland's expectation is that students spend 10 hours per week on a 15-point course, including time in class and personal study. Students should manage their academic workload and other commitments accordingly. Deadlines for coursework are set by course convenors and will be advertised in course material. You should submit your work on time. In extreme circumstances, such as illness, you may seek an extension but you may be required to provide supporting information before the assignment is due. Late assignments without a pre-approved extension may be penalised by loss of marks – check course information for details.