Marx, Critical Realism, and Health Inequalities

Graham Scambler; Sasha Scambler

doi:10.1007/978-94-007-6193-3_5

Marx, Critical Realism, and Health Inequalities

Graham Scambler, Sasha Scambler

Population & Patient Health

UCL University College London

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

15 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Much of the research on health inequalities purporting to be sociological is, in fact, socio-epidemiological. Its restricted focus is on the statistical relationship between assorted socio-economic classifications (SECs) and health and longevity rather than on “classical” sociological issues concerning the nature and salience of capitalism and its contradictions. While this focus has a return for sociology (Wright 2009), its emphasis on SECs has largely displaced consideration of the role of class relations and political power in producing, reproducing and exacerbating health inequalities. Indeed, it is sometimes difficult not to see sociology’s recent published literature on health inequalities as itself the product of a post-1970s neo-liberal ideology owing much to what we shall refer to henceforth as a radically altered class/command dynamic (Scambler 2012).

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Medical Sociology on the Move
Subtitle of host publication	New Directions in Theory
Editors	William Cockerham
Place of Publication	Dordrecht ; New York
Publisher	Springer
Pages	83-103
Number of pages	21
Volume	N/A
Edition	N/A
ISBN (Print)	9789400761926
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6193-3_5
Publication status	Published - 2013

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Marx, Critical Realism, and Health Inequalities

Abstract

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