SOCI2321: Sociology of Health and Medicine

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• To provide students with a sociological framework for understanding the nature of health and illness and issues of health policy and provision.
• To develop students' sociological reasoning in relations to health, illness, the institutions of biomedicine and health care.

• The module will be taught through four thematic blocks of teaching which are:
• Medicalisation and biomedicalisation (social definitions of health and illness).
• Technology, risk and the body (new medical technologies and their consequences).
• Social patterning of health and illness (health inequalities).
• Social organisation of healthcare (global and national).

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• At the end of the course students will: Understand the nature of the social account of Health and Illness.
• Understanding of the nature of the social account of Health and Illness.
• Be able to employ the conceptual programme of the Sociology of Health and of Health Studies in understanding the nature of health and health, biomedicine and health systems in contemporary advanced industrial societies.
• Be able to relate the sociological account of health and illness in advanced industrial societies to issues of public policy formation and implementation in such societies.
• Be able to articulate an argument about health systems and health policies which employs the findings of actual empirical studies in the Sociology of Health and Medicine.

Subject-specific Skills:

• By the end of the module the typical student will be able to:
• Evaluate sociological arguments and evidence in health contexts.
• Employ the conceptual apparatus of Sociology in relation to health issues.
• Undertake and present health related work in a scholarly fashion.
• Apply theoretical and empirical knowledge to an appropriate sociological question in the field of health.
• Employ theoretical and methodological expertise as appropriate in health related area.
• Be able to convey, both orally and in writing, the meaning of abstract methodological concepts with health relevance in ways which are meaningful to others.
• Perceive the relevance of, and relate their sociological knowledge to contemporary issues in health and related issues.

Key Skills:

• By the end of the module the typical student will be able to:
• Demonstrate numeracy skills, i.e. ability to read and interpret complex tables, graphs and charts.
• Demonstrate competence in the use of IT resources.
• Demonstrate a capacity to improve own learning and performance.

• During periods of online teaching, for asynchronous lectures in particular, planned lecture hours may include activities that would normally have taken place within the lecture itself had it been taught face-to-face in a lecture room, and/or those necessary to adapt the teaching and learning materials effectively to online learning.
• Teaching is based on lectures and seminars and is structured around the learning outcomes above.
• Lectures are designed to provide a broad framework by addressing major themes, ideas, issues and debates.
• Students will be encouraged to develop their learning skills in relation to note taking, wider reading and further study, and time management.
• Students will be encouraged and expected to be active participants in Seminars.
• The Illness Portfolio is a set of learning activities that support your learning and understanding of conceptual tools on the sociology of health and illness and will help you acquire research and information analysis skills for this subject for the Portfolio. Students are asked to collect information and data related to an illness/condition of your choice throughout the year.
• Seminars will support learning in the Module and the development of your Illness Portfolio.
• Summative Assessment is by summative essay based on the Illness Portfolio.
• Formative assessment is an optional essay plan.

One optional essay plan of 500 word on how students will address their summative and what their illness topic will be and where they are in researching it (maximum)

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