Living with Health Inequalities: Upstream-Downstream Connections

This book explores how people encounter, understand, live with, and respond to health risks associated with social, economic, and political inequality. It emphasizes interpersonal relationships, biographical meanings, and daily tactics of 'getting by' and moves beyond a focus on categories of morbidity and their structural causes. It draws upon the biopsychosocial approach and respects the experience of people who live with health inequalities in domestic and local settings.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 208 pages
Publication date: 27 November 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This comprehensive book delves into the intricate dynamics of how individuals navigate, comprehend, endure, and react to the health risks intricately linked to social, economic, and political disparities. By complementing a traditional public health approach, it goes beyond merely categorizing morbidity and its underlying structural factors. Instead, it centers on the everyday understandings and actions of individuals living in unequal social conditions. Through a diverse range of case studies encompassing physical and mental health, the authors emphasize the significance of interpersonal relationships, biographical meanings, and the practical strategies employed by individuals to cope with their circumstances. These daily tactics are consistently intertwined with the social-structural aspects of specific times and places.

Drawing upon, applying, and extending the well-known biopsychosocial approach, this book recognizes and accorded due importance to the lived experiences of individuals facing health inequalities, both within domestic and local contexts. It explores notions of personal agency and the contingencies of everyday life, offering a focused psycho-social complement to a public health tradition often characterized by top-down reasoning.

This book is a vital resource for anyone seeking a holistic understanding of health inequalities in their studies, research, and practical endeavors. It brings together insights from public health, sociology, mental health, and social policy, fostering a multidisciplinary perspective on this complex subject matter. By examining the multifaceted aspects of health risks, personal agency, and social structures, this book provides valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities faced by individuals and communities in addressing health disparities.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367458379