10:762:205 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Homo Economicus, Structural Inequality, Developmentalism
Document Summary
Whenever the body feels threatened, it is as if it goes into this response or either flight/fight- it relaxes or freezes up so it may run or stay to get away or fight. Developmentalism: birth-adolescence, maturation (adulthood, gradual senescence (deterioration) Assumption of rational self-interested actor: homo economicus. Decontextualized motivations from webs of social interaction, privileges material well-being. Ideological basis for view of poverty as individual shortcoming. Discounts the concept of structural inequality or oppression. Interprets public health disparities as political problem, not only medical problem. They age/weather quickly and die earlier so they have children. Babies are healthier and do better in school than if the babies were born to an older mother. There are disparities in people in terms of longevity (black vs. non-black)- because of stress. Stress is related directly to the fact that all 3 dominant ideologies are racialized.