Desperately seeking reductions in health inequalities in Canada: Polemics and anger mobilization as the way forward?

The Condition of the Working Class in England (hereafter, CWCE) by Friedrich Engels is a masterpiece of urban research not only for its explicit descriptions of the living and working conditions of members of the Victorian‐era working class and their effects on health but also its insights into the sources of these conditions through a political economy analysis. For Engels, the capitalist economic system, with the support of the state apparatus, prematurely sickened and killed men, women and children in its unrestrained pursuit of profits. Our reading of CWCE in 2023 concludes that Engels identified virtually every social determinant of health now found in contemporary discourse with his insights into how their quality and distribution shape health clearly relevant to present‐day Canada. Revisiting CWCE directs our attention to how the same economic and political forces that sickened and killed members of the English working class in 1845 now do so in present‐day Canada. Engels’s insights also suggest means of responding to these forces. We place these findings within Derrida’s concept of spectre and Rainey and Hanson’s concept of trace to show how ideas from the past can inform the present.

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“…Raphael et al. (2022) suggest that such language can energise movements for social justice and health equity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

1845 or 2023? Friedrich Engels’s insights into the health effects of Victorian‐era and contemporary Canadian capitalism

Govender

Medvedyuk

Raphael

2023

Sociology Health & Illness

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“…Cox and Béland (2013: 308) define valence as “an emotional quality of an idea that can be either positive or negative in its character, or high or low in its intensity.” As a result, the valence of an idea can be either (a) negative, high; (b) negative, low; (c) neutral; and (d) positive, low; or positive, high. Raphael and colleagues (2022) analyzed the importance of valence for promoting social and political movements for progressive change. In our research, we considered valence categorizations in relation to the artist's intention of having the placement of the statue acting as a call to action.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Communicating Friedrich Engels's return to Manchester: Arts and cultural event, history lesson, or call to action?

2022

Self Cite

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There is increasing interest by academics and mainstream media in the relevance of Friedrich Engels's writings for understanding contemporary economic and political issues. Still, Engels's writing about the adverse effects of the capitalist economic system on the health and well-being of workers, the environment, and society in general remains marginalized. Two recent art projects which saw the installation of statues of Engels in Manchester, the city in which he lived and wrote The Condition of the Working Class in England, have created avenues by which Engels and his writings can be communicated to a larger audience. In this paper, we explore how filmmaker Phil Collins's finding and placement of a Soviet-era statue of Engels in Manchester has been communicated as an arts and cultural event, a history lesson, and a call to action to right the injustices generated by the capitalist economic system. The greatest number of communications were reviews and notices of the installation or documentary as arts and cultural events. The arts and cultural and historical aspects of Engels's return to Manchester were dominant across all communications while calls for action were common in the mainstream news reports and blogs. References to capitalism and its effects were seen in mainstream news reports and reviews and arts notices. We conclude that the involvement of the arts and cultural community in political work may be an important means of promoting responses to increasingly intolerable economic, political, and social environments.

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“…Before the 1980s, it was generally accepted in the academic community that health inequalities diminished with advances in medical technology and socioeconomic development (20,21). However, with the publication of the Black Report, health inequalities increased (22)(23)(24)(25). Moreover, higher social strata were advantageous for health stratification (4,26,27).…”

Section: Ses and Residents' Srhmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social transition, socioeconomic status and self-rated health in China: evidence from a national cross-sectional survey (CGSS)

Gao,

Zeng,

Liao

et al. 2024

Front. Public Health

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BackgroundSocial transition is one of the multi-level mechanisms that influence health disparities. However, it has received less attention as one of the non-traditional social determinants of health. A few studies have examined China’s social transition and its impact on health inequality in self-rated health (SRH). Therefore, this study explores the impact of China’s market-oriented reforms—social transition and socioeconomic status (SES)—on residents’ SRH.MethodsUsing the cross-sectional data from the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) in 2017, we analyzed the effects of social transition and SES on the SRH of Chinese residents using the RIF (Recentered influence function) method. The RIF decomposition method investigated health differences among different populations and their determinants.ResultsSocial transition and SES have significant positive effects on the SRH of Chinese residents. The correlation between SES and the SRH of Chinese residents is moderated by social transition, implying that social transition can weaken the correlation between SES and the SRH of Chinese residents. The impacts of SES and social transition on SRH vary across populations.ConclusionPromoting social transition and favoring disadvantaged groups with more resources are urgently needed to promote equitable health outcomes.

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Desperately seeking reductions in health inequalities in Canada: Polemics and anger mobilization as the way forward?

Cited by 7 publications

References 70 publications

1845 or 2023? Friedrich Engels’s insights into the health effects of Victorian‐era and contemporary Canadian capitalism

1845 or 2023? Friedrich Engels’s insights into the health effects of Victorian‐era and contemporary Canadian capitalism

Communicating Friedrich Engels's return to Manchester: Arts and cultural event, history lesson, or call to action?

Social transition, socioeconomic status and self-rated health in China: evidence from a national cross-sectional survey (CGSS)

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