It is a common belief that biomedicine can provide complete responses to health needs and healthcare systems have been organized accordingly. Criticisms have actually been raised to this model by both some schools of social medicine and feminist movements. In the last decades the model of Social Determinants of Health (SDH), which scales down the weight of healthcare systems, has been internationally accepted. The aim of the present study was to investigate, according to the feminist standpoint theory, the process of social construction of health in the context of local networks. The specific research questions were: are there alternatives to the present biomedicine monopoly? Who is realizing them? Three initial hypotheses were formulated: I) a relation existed between the birth of those alternative experiences and the leanings of local political and health institutions; II) those experiences arose due to the effects of economic crisis and austerity; III) those experiences were able to evolve thanks to presence of local networks active on social issues. In order to address the above-mentioned research questions, two case studies were conducted in contexts where experiences of health construction alternative to biomedicine are present: the Poble Sec Barrio in Barcelona, Spain, and the historic centre of Naples, Italy. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with doctors, activists and privileged observers. Ethnographic observations were carried out during public workshops. After having combined the existing critical reflections with the interview analysis, it was possible to conclude that biomedical model provides only a partial response to current health needs. Intervention on health and healthcare has to be rethought in a social and community sense, starting from concreteness of social relations and consequently also from the present dynamics of power. An intersectional feminist approach is therefore required to address this objective.

Ingenerare salute. Il processo di costruzione sociale della salute nell’interazione complessa delle reti locali. Indagine situata su due studi di caso a Napoli e Barcellona

Bruna Mura
2019

Abstract

It is a common belief that biomedicine can provide complete responses to health needs and healthcare systems have been organized accordingly. Criticisms have actually been raised to this model by both some schools of social medicine and feminist movements. In the last decades the model of Social Determinants of Health (SDH), which scales down the weight of healthcare systems, has been internationally accepted. The aim of the present study was to investigate, according to the feminist standpoint theory, the process of social construction of health in the context of local networks. The specific research questions were: are there alternatives to the present biomedicine monopoly? Who is realizing them? Three initial hypotheses were formulated: I) a relation existed between the birth of those alternative experiences and the leanings of local political and health institutions; II) those experiences arose due to the effects of economic crisis and austerity; III) those experiences were able to evolve thanks to presence of local networks active on social issues. In order to address the above-mentioned research questions, two case studies were conducted in contexts where experiences of health construction alternative to biomedicine are present: the Poble Sec Barrio in Barcelona, Spain, and the historic centre of Naples, Italy. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with doctors, activists and privileged observers. Ethnographic observations were carried out during public workshops. After having combined the existing critical reflections with the interview analysis, it was possible to conclude that biomedical model provides only a partial response to current health needs. Intervention on health and healthcare has to be rethought in a social and community sense, starting from concreteness of social relations and consequently also from the present dynamics of power. An intersectional feminist approach is therefore required to address this objective.
2019
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11576/2665164
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