Oppression: A Social Determinant of Health

Oppression and health are intricately connected and much scholarly and applied attention to the social determinants of health has focused on the ＂causes of the causes＂ of ill health. These include systemic forces such as capitalism, globalization, imperialism, medicalization, neo-colonialism and neoliberalism. The authors of this important contribution insist that If we are to change the oppressive practices that cause ill health, our analysis must attend to these systemic forces and grapple with society’s growing health inequalities with a structural analysis rooted in an ethic of responsibility and social justice. In this important addition to the relatively new field of critical health studies, this book’s internationally recognized authors do just this. Oppression is an integration of critical social scientific perspectives and health systems/health sciences knowledge. The second edition updates material in the first edition and adds a new chapter on COVID -19.

Dr. Elizabeth McGibbon is a nationally recognized critical health scholar. She leads a national project, Mapping Health Equity in Canadian Public Policy, and is co-researcher in a study about diversifying understandings of heart health of Manitoban First Nations People. Her books include Anti-racist Health Care Practice and Oppression: A Social Determinant of Health.