Course Description
This course presents new ways to think about the body, health and illness and to see them not only as biological phenomena but also as culturally and socially mediated experiences. Students are asked to explore questions that frame mainstream views on health and health care, as well as perspectives that challenge these views. Medical practice traditionally sees the patient as a physical body, yet the social reality of the lived body is always present. The individual, and his/her family and friends, as well as nurses and other medical practitioners, play a key role in negotiating the contested territory between these two realities. Also, there are many different bodies - the body of the child, the pregnant woman, the athlete, the surgical body, the body in pain - and all are culturally framed.
In this course students will first examine their own experiences of being ill and being treated medically. Then, using the major sociological perspectives, students will examine how culture, socialization, age, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status, and ability/disability shape their understanding of wellness, illness, pain, and the bodies of others and themselves.
In addition, this course facilitates the development of the analytical tools necessary to explore how society responds to illness through the institutions and professions involved in the delivery of health care. In order that students understand the experimental and survey material that they encounter, they are expected to gain a rudimentary understanding of statistical procedures and methodology, which will be reflected in their research reports or essays.
This course recognizes that almost every aspect related to the body and health is currently being contested and debated. There are arguments about what is normal/abnormal, natural/unnatural and whether the body should be artificially or genetically enhanced. There is debate about defining the proper role of the nurse and other health practitioners. There is debate about how the health-care system should be structured, what should be provided, by whom, and who should pay for it. Students who have taken SOCI 400 Sociology of Health cannot take this course.
