Health and Modernity

by McQueen, David V.; Kickbusch, Ilona; Potvin, Louise; Pelikan, Jurgen M.; Balbo, Laura

• ISBN13: 9780387377575
• ISBN10: 0387377573
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-04-01
• Publisher: Springer Nature

Summary

The aim of this book is to demonstrate how the deep theoretical underpinnings of health promotion contribute to contemporary public health. The 20th century development of the social sciences provided an extensive theoretical debate on modernity that led to a revised social theory. This new social theory is, in the eyes of the authors, totally relevant and essential as the theoretical foundation for present day health promotion practice. The authors contend that the development of health promotion cannot be adequately understood and the challenges cannot be resolved without an explanatory framework of the major societal shifts that have occurred in the latter half of the 20th century. The authors have identified seven key characteristics of modern health promotion that relate directly to the social theory espoused in the book. Within individual chapters and interwoven throughout the entire book the authors consider the interplay of actor and structure, the dynamics of complexity and causality, the interface of inclusion and exclusion, the role of uncertainty and risk, the importance of learning and communication in a knowledge society, the task of framing interventions within new governance principles, and the challenge of acting locally in a global world. This book is designed to help the reader understand how health promotion is based on social theory. Further, it will provide reflexive insights into the everyday practice of health promotion and illustrate that health promotion is an integral part of the modern public health as practiced in the West. This book will be of interest to both health promotion practitioners and social scientists.

Author Biography

David V. McQueen is the Associate Director for Global Health Promotion at the CDC, and the Program Leader for the IUHPE-WHO Global Programme on Health Promotion Effectiveness. He is on the editorial board of the Birkhauser journal Social and Preventive Medicine, and he has co-edited the book Global Behavioural Risk Surveillance for Springer. He is also co-editing Global Perspectives on Health Promotion Effectiveness (to be published in June 2007). His current research interests include: the theoretical foundations of health promotion, nature of evidence and evaluation in health promotion, analytical methods for risk factor surveillance data, new applications of surveillance, and the health implications of urbanization and urban sprawl.Ilona Kickbusch is a private health consultant, and formerly Head of the Division of Global Health at Yale University School of Medicine, in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. She joined Yale after a long career with the World Health Organization where she initiated the OTTAWA Charter for Health Promotion and headed a range of innovative programs. She has published widely on the new public health and is the founder and chair of the editorial board of the journal Health Promotion International. She continues to act as an adviser to the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization and a range of foundations, NGOs and the private sector on matters of global health and the development of health promotion. Presently she acts as the senior health advisor to the United Nations Association of the USA's global health campaign. She has also been designated the distinguished Fulbright New Century Scholars Leader on "Challenges of Health in a Borderless World." She received her Ph.D. in political science at the University of Konstanz, Germany.

Table of Contents

Introduction : health promotion : the origins of the third public health revolution leading to a new public health	p. 1
From a theory group to a theory book	p. 6
Modernity, public health and health promotion : a reflexive discourse	p. 12
Critical issues in theory for health promotion	p. 21
Cultural capital in health promotion	p. 43
Understanding differentiation of health in late modernity - by use of sociological systems theory	p. 74
Managing uncertainty through participation	p. 103
Thinking health promotion sociologically	p. 129
Health governance : the health society	p. 144
Ottawa Charter for Health Promototion	p. 162
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