IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v187y2017icp268-275.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“How the other half live”: Lay perspectives on health inequalities in an age of austerity

Author

Listed:
  • Garthwaite, Kayleigh
  • Bambra, Clare

Abstract

This paper examines how people living in two socially contrasting areas of Stockton on Tees, North East England experience, explain, and understand the stark health inequalities in their town. Participants displayed opinions that fluctuated between a variety of converging and contrasting explanations. Three years of ethnographic observation in both areas (2014–2017) generated explanations which initially focused closely on behavioural and individualised factors, whilst 118 qualitative interviews subsequently revealed more nuanced justifications, which prioritised more structural, material and psychosocial influences. Findings indicate that inequalities in healthcare, including access, the importance of judgemental attitudes, and perceived place stigma, would then be offered as explanations for the stark gap in spatial inequalities in the area. Notions of fatalism, linked to (a lack of) choice, control, and fear of the future, were common reasons given for inequalities across all participants. We conclude by arguing for a prioritisation of listening to, and working to understand, the experiences of communities experiencing the brunt of health inequalities; especially important at a time of austerity.

Suggested Citation

  • Garthwaite, Kayleigh & Bambra, Clare, 2017. "“How the other half live”: Lay perspectives on health inequalities in an age of austerity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 268-275.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:187:y:2017:i:c:p:268-275
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.05.021
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953617303155
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.05.021?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Blaxter, Mildred, 1997. "Whose fault is it? People's own conceptions of the reasons for health inequalities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 44(6), pages 747-756, March.
    2. Macintyre, Sally & McKay, Laura & Ellaway, Anne, 2005. "Are rich people or poor people more likely to be ill? Lay perceptions, by social class and neighbourhood, of inequalities in health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 313-317, January.
    3. Blaxter, Mildred, 1983. "The causes of disease : Women talking," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 59-69, January.
    4. Clare Bambra & Steve Robertson & Adetayo Kasim & Joe Smith & Joanne Marie Cairns-Nagi & Alison Copeland & Nina Finlay & Karen Johnson, 2014. "Healthy Land? An Examination of the Area-Level Association between Brownfield Land and Morbidity and Mortality in England," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(2), pages 433-454, February.
    5. Davidson, Rosemary & Kitzinger, Jenny & Hunt, Kate, 2006. "The wealthy get healthy, the poor get poorly? Lay perceptions of health inequalities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(9), pages 2171-2182, May.
    6. Bolam, Bruce & Murphy, Simon & Gleeson, Kate, 2004. "Individualisation and inequalities in health: a qualitative study of class identity and health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 59(7), pages 1355-1365, October.
    7. Hatzenbuehler, M.L. & Phelan, J.C. & Link, B.G., 2013. "Stigma as a fundamental cause of population health inequalities," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 103(5), pages 813-821.
    8. Macintyre, Sally & Ellaway, Anne & Cummins, Steven, 2002. "Place effects on health: how can we conceptualise, operationalise and measure them?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 125-139, July.
    9. Bernard, Paul & Charafeddine, Rana & Frohlich, Katherine L. & Daniel, Mark & Kestens, Yan & Potvin, Louise, 2007. "Health inequalities and place: A theoretical conception of neighbourhood," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(9), pages 1839-1852, November.
    10. Macintyre, Sally, 1997. "The black report and beyond what are the issues?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 44(6), pages 723-745, March.
    11. Backett-Milburn, Kathryn & Cunningham-Burley, Sarah & Davis, John, 2003. "Contrasting lives, contrasting views? understandings of health inequalities from children in differing social circumstances," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 57(4), pages 613-623, August.
    12. Tracey Jensen, 2014. "Welfare Commonsense, Poverty Porn and Doxosophy," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 19(3), pages 277-283, September.
    13. Cummins, Steven & Curtis, Sarah & Diez-Roux, Ana V. & Macintyre, Sally, 2007. "Understanding and representing 'place' in health research: A relational approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(9), pages 1825-1838, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alhassan, Jacob Albin Korem & Abonyi, Sylvia & Neudorf, Cordell & Hanson, Lori, 2021. "“It feels like somebody cut my legs off”: Austerity, transportation and the ‘web of dispossession’ in Saskatchewan, Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Howarth, David & Marteau, Theresa M. & Coutts, Adam P. & Huppert, Julian L. & Pinto, Pedro Ramos, 2019. "What do the British public think of inequality in health, wealth, and power?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 198-206.
    2. Rankin, David & Backett-Milburn, Kathryn & Platt, Stephen, 2009. "Practitioner perspectives on tackling health inequalities: Findings from an evaluation of healthy living centres in Scotland," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(5), pages 925-932, March.
    3. Spielman, Seth E. & Yoo, Eun-hye, 2009. "The spatial dimensions of neighborhood effects," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(6), pages 1098-1105, March.
    4. Davidson, Rosemary & Kitzinger, Jenny & Hunt, Kate, 2006. "The wealthy get healthy, the poor get poorly? Lay perceptions of health inequalities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(9), pages 2171-2182, May.
    5. Petteway, Ryan J. & Mujahid, Mahasin & Allen, Amani & Morello-Frosch, Rachel, 2019. "The body language of place: A new method for mapping intergenerational “geographies of embodiment” in place-health research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 223(C), pages 51-63.
    6. Chinn, Deborah, 2011. "Critical health literacy: A review and critical analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 60-67, July.
    7. Shankardass, Ketan & Robertson, Colin & Shaughnessy, Krystelle & Sykora, Martin & Feick, Rob, 2019. "A unified ecological framework for studying effects of digital places on well-being," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 227(C), pages 119-127.
    8. Cannuscio, Carolyn C. & Weiss, Eve E. & Fruchtman, Hannah & Schroeder, Jeannette & Weiner, Janet & Asch, David A., 2009. "Visual epidemiology: Photographs as tools for probing street-level etiologies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 553-564, August.
    9. Petrović, Ana & Manley, David & van Ham, Maarten, 2018. "Freedom from the Tyranny of Neighbourhood: Rethinking Socio-Spatial Context Effects," IZA Discussion Papers 11416, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Santana, Paula & Santos, Rita & Nogueira, Helena, 2009. "The link between local environment and obesity: A multilevel analysis in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, Portugal," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(4), pages 601-609, February.
    11. Giatti, Luana & Barreto, Sandhi M. & César, Cibele C., 2010. "Unemployment and self-rated health: Neighborhood influence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(4), pages 815-823, August.
    12. Ivory, Vivienne C. & Russell, Marie & Witten, Karen & Hooper, Carolyn M. & Pearce, Jamie & Blakely, Tony, 2015. "What shape is your neighbourhood? Investigating the micro geographies of physical activity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 313-321.
    13. Macintyre, Sally & Macdonald, Laura & Ellaway, Anne, 2008. "Do poorer people have poorer access to local resources and facilities? The distribution of local resources by area deprivation in Glasgow, Scotland," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(6), pages 900-914, September.
    14. Rainham, Daniel & McDowell, Ian & Krewski, Daniel & Sawada, Mike, 2010. "Conceptualizing the healthscape: Contributions of time geography, location technologies and spatial ecology to place and health research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(5), pages 668-676, March.
    15. Maria Holst Algren & Carsten Kronborg Bak & Gabriele Berg-Beckhoff & Pernille Tanggaard Andersen, 2015. "Health-Risk Behaviour in Deprived Neighbourhoods Compared with Non-Deprived Neighbourhoods: A Systematic Literature Review of Quantitative Observational Studies," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(10), pages 1-17, October.
    16. Emslie, Carol & Hunt, Kate, 2008. "The weaker sex? Exploring lay understandings of gender differences in life expectancy: A qualitative study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(5), pages 808-816, September.
    17. Mitchell, Richard & Dujardin, Claire & Popham, Frank & Farfan Portet, Maria-Isabel & Thomas, Isabelle & Lorant, Vincent, 2011. "Using matched areas to explore international differences in population health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(8), pages 1113-1122.
    18. Anna-Karin Ivert & Marie Torstensson Levander & Juan Merlo, 2013. "Adolescents' Utilisation of Psychiatric Care, Neighbourhoods and Neighbourhood Socioeconomic Deprivation: A Multilevel Analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(11), pages 1-1, November.
    19. Balsam Ahmad & Fouad M. Fouad & Shahaduz Zaman & Peter Phillimore, 2019. "Women’s health and well-being in low-income formal and informal neighbourhoods on the eve of the armed conflict in Aleppo," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 64(1), pages 75-82, January.
    20. Steffen Andreas Schüle & Gabriele Bolte, 2015. "Interactive and Independent Associations between the Socioeconomic and Objective Built Environment on the Neighbourhood Level and Individual Health: A Systematic Review of Multilevel Studies," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(4), pages 1-31, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:187:y:2017:i:c:p:268-275. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.