NURS1003 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Consumer Activism, Food Systems, Structural Change
Topic 5: Marginalisation and Health
Marginalisation
Marginalisation: “The social process of being made marginal (being separated from the rest
of society, forced to occupy the fringes, not considered to be the centre of things, lower
social standing)”
Marginalisation affects equity in disbursement of resources (food, housing, wealth),
access to services, programs and policies
Marginalised individuals, families, communities and countries experience poor
health
Factors leading to marginalisation
Lecture: Models of Health
Social gradient of health
Social determinants of health (SES)
Health inequality
Lecture: Culture and Health
Values, attitudes, beliefs and norms
Racism, ethnocentrism
Culture and cultural safety
Lecture: Medical Pluralism
Medical Pluralism
Medical Dominance / Biomedicine
Lecture: Birthing through a cultural lens
Culture, wellbeing, remote living
Difference: “The idea that an individual possesses characteristic that are dissimilar to or
behaves differently from the majority of people within society”
Deviance: “Behaviour that transgresses social expectations and is likely to attract sanctions
from other members of society
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Stigma
Stigma: an attribute or characteristic that separates people from one another. It is used by
individuals to interpret specific attributes of others as ‘discreditable or unworthy’ and this
results in the stigmatised person becoming devalued
“stigma is socially constructed and is attributable to cultural, social, historical, and
situational factors”
Discrimination: Acting upon the idea that someone is of less value and should be excluded
from social networks and the benefits of society
Stigma is culturally‐derived. Therefore, like culture, it:
stems from values, attitudes, beliefs, norms
changes over time
is not held by all members of a society
is expressed in language
is affected by other structural factors, such as gender, class and ‘race’
What has been stigmatised?
Medical conditions – e.g. leprosy – historically made to carry a bell to warn others to
get out of the way
Economic conditions
Socio‐cultural conditions
Body characteristics
“stigmas that are not considered the ‘fault’ of an individual are treated differently from
those for which personal ‘blame’ can be attributed”
Existential stigma – one‐sided and has no control over the situation (older and
marginalised from the society)
Achieved stigma – stigma is blamed for – e.g. HIV/AIDS
Effect of stigma on health
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Stigmatising behaviour
Bullying
Exclusion
Gossip
Verbal abuse
Blaming
Rejection by friends and family
Physical violence
Genocide
Ethnic ‘cleansing’
Effects of stigma on health
Reduced access to the social determinants of health
Increased morbidity and mortality
For those with pre‐existing health problems, stigma can “intensify the sense that life
is uncertain, dangerous, and hazardous”
CASE STUDY: The Stigmatisation of Obesity
Obesity: “An excess of body fat, although there is disagreement about how this is
measured.”
Overweight and obesity are said to be at ‘crisis’ levels.
There are concerns about its personal and financial cost
In Singapore:
4 in 10 adults aged 18 to 69 were overweight in 2010
Of these, one in ten were obese
Obesity levels have doubled since the early 1990s
In Australia:
7/10 middle‐aged men and 6/10 middle‐aged women are overweight or obese
Approx. 1.5million middle‐aged Australians are currently obese – high risk of CV in
the long‐term
Health Implications for populations
When assessing the health risk of individuals and populations, the body mass index
(BMI) has a strong correlation with health risk
Globally there are increasing of people with high BMI which raises concerns at
national levels for health care costs
Health risks include cardio‐vascular disease, diabetes and cancers
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary
Marginalisation: the social process of being made marginal (being separated from the rest of society, forced to occupy the fringes, not considered to be the centre of things, lower social standing) . Marginalisation affects equity in disbursement of resources (food, housing, wealth), access to services, programs and policies. Marginalised individuals, families, communities and countries experience poor health. Difference: the idea that an individual possesses characteristic that are dissimilar to or behaves differently from the majority of people within society . Deviance: behaviour that transgresses social expectations and is likely to attract sanctions from other members of society. Stigma: an attribute or characteristic that separates people from one another. It is used by individuals to interpret specific attributes of others as discreditable or unworthy" and this results in the stigmatised person becoming devalued. Stigma is socially constructed and is attributable to cultural, social, historical, and situational factors .
