Topic 9: Culture, Death and Dying
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Module: Health, Illness and Society
Topic 9
Topic 9: Culture, Death and Dying
Objectives
When you have completed the reading and participated in the taught components for this week, we hope you will be able to:
- Describe how disease, illness and death may be viewed as social constructions
- Define medicalization and describe how it can be applied to one area of health
- Critically review the concept of the ‘good death’
Lecture: The social construction of disease, illness and death/span>
This lecture will critically examine how phenomena such as illness and death may be constructed in different ways, and the implications of these different constructions for experiences of illness and the organisation of healthcare. The social organisation of death and dying in contemporary societies will be used as a case study.
Seminar: The ‘good death’: sociological perspectives
Click below to discuss:
Preparation for this week
In this seminar we will focus on sociological perspectives on death and dying. In particular, we will review how death may be considered as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ from medical and social viewpoints. You will be required to read the set reading and write 200 words on what you would consider a ‘good death’ to be. The seminar will also explore implications for individuals, families and communities as well as the role of healthcare.
Set reading for this week
BOOK CHAPTERS
Barker KK: The social construction of illness: medicalization and contested illness. In: Handbook of Medical Sociology. 6th edn. Edited by Bird CE, Conrad P, Fremont AM, Timmermans S. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press; 2010 (check library availability)
ACADEMIC PAPERS
Armstrong D: Silence and truth in death and dying. Social Science and Medicine 1987, 24(8):651-657. (read it here)
Walter T: Historical and cultural variants on the good death. BMJ 2003, 327:218-220. (read it here)
Lecture notes and slides
Reference list
