21 | Health: Part 2

The second chapter in what literally nobody but me is calling The Health Series focuses on Patterns and explanations of ill health in society and is arranged in a slightly convoluted but-quite-logical-if-you-think-about-it kind of way.

It’s basically constructed around three broad organising categories – class, gender and ethnicity – and each is considered in terms of patterns of morbidity and mortality (which explains why we spent so much time defining these ideas in the first chapter on the social construction of health and illness).

Once patterns of ill-health have been identified the chapter then looks at how these can be explained and evaluated, for each of the class, gender and ethnicity categories, in terms of four general types of explanation:

1. Artefact and measurement
2. Natural/social selection
3. Cultural/behavioural factors
4. Structural and material factors.

There are a few printer’s marks (but nothing very intrusive) and a grand total of two (I counted them to make sure) pictures. Since this is a pre-clearance version of the chapter, one has a large watermark, but given the quality of picture selection throughout this is unlikely to detract from anyone’s enjoyment. Luckily whoever did the captioning was on top form here.

To make-up for the lack of pictures there are some tables, for which I should probably take responsibility, but I’m not sure that I can.