Title
How Do We Explain the Social, Political, and Economic Determinants of Health? A Call for the Inclusion of Social Theories of Health Inequality Within U.S.-Based Public Health Pedagogy
Publication Date
12-1-2020
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Pedagogy in Health Promotion
Volume
6
Issue
4
DOI
10.1177/2373379920937719
First Page
246
Last Page
252
Abstract
New public health educational competencies include the ability to explain social phenomena—such as politics, globalization, and racism—and their relationship to health and disease. Formal explanations of social phenomena call for social theory. However, public health pedagogy is principally concerned with behavioral theory. This piece surveys the behavioral theoretical status quo within public health pedagogy and discusses its implication. The concept of “social theories of health inequality”—that is, explanations of health-relevant social phenomena and their role in producing differences in health, morbidity, and mortality—is proposed as one way of fulfilling new educational competencies. Emerging social theories of health inequality are identified and discussed in relation to public health pedagogy.
Keywords
CEPH, public health pedagogy, social determinants of health
Department
Public Health and Recreation
Recommended Citation
Michael Harvey. "How Do We Explain the Social, Political, and Economic Determinants of Health? A Call for the Inclusion of Social Theories of Health Inequality Within U.S.-Based Public Health Pedagogy" Pedagogy in Health Promotion (2020): 246-252. https://doi.org/10.1177/2373379920937719