SOCI3597: Health and Place

• At least 20 credits of level 2 modules from the Department of Sociology.

• None.

• None.

• To introduce Level 3 students to the sociological approach and studies that connect health to place.
• To situate the sociology of health and place in the wider context of political economy, critical theory, and economic sociology.
• To critically examine the concepts of health and place through medical sociology and human geography.
• To help students to understand the role of place-based policy-making and implementation to improve health outcomes.
• To help students learn to develop abilities to carry out academic research on health and place.

• Multi-scalar understandings and trajectories of place
• Complexities of place. Path dependency, systems, and dynamics of health
• Communities in/out (of) control. Healthy and unhealthy places
• Health inequalities and place
• Structural violence and place
• Health policy and place. Prevention and treatment. Population and patient-based approaches
• Biopolitics and medicalisation
• Stigma, race, and place

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Understand key concepts about health and place.
• Be able to apply (and critique) concepts about health and place to different geographical contexts.
• Develop knowledge about a range of interactions between the global political economy and health and place.
• Be familiar with place-based approaches to understanding health outcomes.
• Understand the relationships between policy and health and place.
• Develop an understanding of health as multi-scalar and complex.
• Understand the both the causes and experiences of health and health outcomes in place/s.
• Be aware of a range of international examples illustrating the relationship between health and place.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Evaluate sociological arguments and evidence.
• Use abstract sociological concepts with confidence.
• Be aware of and be able to apply cross-national and comparative perspectives as well as national perspectives.
• Undertake and present sociological work in a scholarly manner.
• Apply theoretical and /or empirical knowledge to an appropriate sociological question.
• Convey in writing the meaning of abstract theoretical concepts in ways that are understandable to others

Key Skills:

• Demonstrate a range of communication skills including the ability to: evaluate and synthesize information obtained from a variety of written sources; communicate relevant information in different ways.
• Demonstrate competence in the use of IT resources, including the ability to word-process, use and interpret basic statistical tables and graphs, and use web-based resources (Blackboard Learn Ultra).
• Demonstrate a capacity to improve own learning and performance, including the specific ability to manage time effectively, work to prescribed deadlines, engage in different ways of learning including both independent and directed forms of learning, gather necessary information from a range of bibliographic sources.

• 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.
• Lectures provide students with substantive information, indicate the main issues to be considered and introduce the main themes, interpretations and arguments of the subject material. They encourage students to develop skills in listening, selective note-taking and an appreciation of how information may be structured and presented to others.
• Seminars will be organised around themes for discussion and will have designated reading. They provide the opportunity for students to present and develop their own understanding of relevant materials, encourage them to develop transferable skills (e.g. oral communication, group work skills, information retrieval skills), subject-specific skills (e.g. competence in using theoretical perspectives and concepts in Sociology, the ability to formulate sociologically-informed questions) and general skills (e.g. judging and evaluating evidence, assessing the merits of competing arguments and explanations, making reasoned arguments).
• Students will also spend time in self-directed study as they prepare for specific seminar and essay assignments.
• A formative essay requires students to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of module topics. The feedback provided on formative essays enables students to reflect on their knowledge and understanding, and to improve their performance where appropriate.
• A summative essay requires students to demonstrate more detailed and extended knowledge of module topics. It also provides an opportunity for feedback.

Students will have the option of submitting an outline of the summative essay (up to 500 words) to obtain guidance and feedbacks from the module conveners.

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