The Social Construction of Health and Illness

The Social Construction of Health

In this course, Professor Michael Calnan (University of Kent) explores the social construction of health. In the first lecture, we think about the social construction of health and illness, defining health, illness, disease and sickness. In the second lecture, we think about how stigma links to the social construction of health and five forms of stigma. Next, we think about the role of the medical profession and the medical professionals within it, in socially constructing societal views of health and illness. In the fourth and final lecture, we think about the pharmaceuticalisation of health and how this links to the medicalisation of health.

The Social Construction of Health and Illness

In this lecture, we think about the social construction of health and illness, focusing in particular on: (i) the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) definition of health as being a state of complete wellbeing, rather than simply the absence of disease; (ii) an extension to the WHO’s definition of health being to include health as an allowance to participate in society; (iii) some examples of laypersons’ definitions of health, which can vary based on a person’s circumstances and life course; (iv) Crawford’s links between capitalist production and health as discipline in life, as well as between capitalist consumption and health as the ability to live a good life; (v) differentiating between illness and disease, with illness being the manifested symptomology and disease being the biological cause; (vi) sickness being the social role associated with being ill, often connected with Talcott Parsons’ functionalist approach; (vii) Arthur W. Frank’s writing, which highlights the apparent and unapparent nature of different ailments in certain situations.