MA Humanitarianism and Conflict Response / Course details

Who gets sick, what disease afflicts them, what treatments are available and what outcome they will have are determined by an interaction of social, political and economic forces. In the past modules, you have learnt about Social determinants of health and the fundamentals of good health systems. This module takes the learning from the previous modules by bringing the ‘community’ - defined both in the broadest and the narrowest sense - at the core of the analysis of health. Why are there regional disparities in certain diseases despite global campaigns to handle them? How are these global campaigns received locally? Why do some of them fail in certain regions? These are some of the questions that this course will answer. 

Academically, this module will draw from literatures in sociology of health and illness, medical sociology/anthropology and social psychiatry. 

This is a distance learning module and is therefore tailored to the needs of those working in remote locations.

Session 1: “Health for all”– Community Approaches to Health

Session 2: Understanding Community Health

Session 3: Illness Perception and Help Seeking: The Role of Culture

Session 4: Medical Pluralism/ Systems of Medical Knowledge 

Session 5: Mental Health and PTSD

Session 6: Diseases in Context

Session 7: Stigma and Discrimination

Session 8: Health Promotion and Behaviour Change

This is a distance learning course unit. All lectures will be available via Blackboard in a variety of formats. Live sessions will only take place at the convener’s discretion. 

• Understand the theoretical underpinnings within sociology and anthropology as they are applied to health and medicine.
• To understand how social, economic and political factors affect health outcomes. 
• To engage critically with the role of culture and other non-biomedical models of health and well being. 
• Understanding these processes will help in the delivery of health care on local, national and global scene.

• Re-think the concept of community health by locating medicine and medical practices socially. 
• Understand the role of culture in the practise of health  
• Understand health as a holistic process and engage with other explanations of health and illness.  

• Identify the causes of adverse health outcomes.
• Integrate culture and context in planning health initiatives at the community level. 

• Critical analysis of health and illness
• Locate community health holistically

Marmot, M. (2006) ‘ Health in an Unequal World’, The Lancet, 368.

Pilgrim, D. (2005) Key Concepts in mental Health, Sage.

Bilton, T. (2002) Introductory Sociology, chapter 13.

Kleinman, A. (1978) ‘Concepts and a model for the comparison of medical systems as cultural systems’, Social Science and Medicine.

Please note that these units are intensive 8-week short courses, predominately independent-study, with no face-to-face learning