Prelims

Health and Illness in the Neoliberal Era in Europe

ISBN: 978-1-83909-120-9, eISBN: 978-1-83909-119-3

Publication date: 26 November 2020

Citation

(2020), "Prelims", Gabe, J., Cardano, M. and Genova, A. (Ed.) Health and Illness in the Neoliberal Era in Europe, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. i-xix. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83909-119-320201012

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020 Jonathan Gabe, Mario Cardano and Angela Genova


Half Title

Health and Illness in the Neoliberal Era in Europe

Title Page

Health and Illness in the Neoliberal Era in Europe

Edited by

Jonathan Gabe

University of London, United Kingdom

Mario Cardano

University of Turin, Italy

Angela Genova

University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Italy

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2021

Editorial matter and selection © 2020 Jonathan Gabe, Mario Cardano and Angela Genova. Published under exclusive licence. Individual chapters © 2020 Emerald Publishing Limited

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-83909-120-9 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-83909-119-3 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-83909-121-6 (Epub)

Dedication

In memory of Gareth Williams, a greatly missed old friend and colleague.

Contents

List of Figures and Tables ix
List of Contributors xi
About the Editors xvii
Acknowledgements xix
Introduction
Jonathan Gabe, Mario Cardano and Angela Genova
1
Inequities
Chapter One Neoliberal Epidemics: Etiology, A Bit of History, and a View From Ground Zero
Ted Schrecker
11
Chapter Two Health Inequalities in Europe: Policy Matters in the Neoliberal Era
Angela Genova and Simone Lombardini
31
Chapter Three Economic Crisis, Young Adults and Health in Spain
Marga Marí-Klose, Albert Julià and Pedro Gallo
47
Self-responsibilisation
Chapter Four Citizenship, Neoliberalism and Healthcare
Dino Numerato, Karel Čada and Petra A. Honová
75
Chapter Five Crowdsourcing in Medicine in the Neoliberal Era
Linda Lombi and Luca Mori
91
Chapter Six Adjusting Life to Illness or Illness to Life? Reflections on Children’s Competences in the Neoliberal Era
Anna Rosa Favretto and Francesca Zaltron
107
Chapter Seven Neoliberalism and Illness Narratives: The Intertwined Logics of Choice and Care
Micol Bronzini and Benedetta Polini
123
Cost Containment Processes
Chapter Eight The Italian Nhs Between Latent Paradoxes and Problematic Sustainability
Guido Giarelli
143
Chapter Nine The Neoliberal Politics of Otherness in Italian Psychiatric Care: Notes on a Team Ethnography in Six Acute Psychiatric Wards
Mario Cardano and Luigi Gariglio
161
Chapter Ten Some Symptoms of Neoliberalisation in the Institutional Arrangement of Maternity Services in Russia
Anastasia Novkunskaya
177
Index 195

List of Figures and Tables

Fig. 1.1. General Government Spending as % of GDP, Selected Countries, Actual and Anticipated. 16
Fig. 1.2. Private Medical Insurance Advert (London Underground, 2011). 17
Fig. 1.3. The Unequally Distributed Impacts of Post-2010 Austerity in the United Kingdom. 19
Fig. 1.4. Bus Stop Information Stockton-on-Tees. 20
Fig. 1.5. Daily Mirror Front Page, 16 June 2017. 22
Fig. 1.6. Job Advert from HM Treasury Offering Private Medical Insurance. 24
Fig. 2.1. HLY65+ Trend in the Worst Countries and the Best One, 2004–2017. 39
Fig. 2.2. HLY65+ Average Growth vs. Gini Index Average Growth, 2004–2017. 41
Fig. 3.1. Self-Perceived Health Status among Young People in Spain. 53
Fig. 3.2. Probability of Suffering Limitations as a Result of a Health Problem According to the Number of Housing and Environment Problems. 57
Fig. 3.3. Frequency of Young People at Risk of Psychological Distress (GHQ12 > = 3). 58
Fig. 3.4. Probability of Having Psychological Distress According to the Level of Perceived Social and Emotional Support (2017). 60
Fig. 3.5. Probability of Having Psychological Distress According to Social Inclusion/Exclusion Profiles (2017). 61
Fig. 3.6. Cumulative Effects: Probability of Having Limitations (Poor Quality of Life) According to the Degree of Mental Health (2017). 61
Fig. 3.7. Young People (%) Who Have a Diagnosed Depression, Anxiety or Other Mental Problems. 62
Fig. 3.8. Young People Who Have Consumed Antidepressants or Stimulants in the Previous Two Weeks. 64
Fig. 3.9. Probability of Having Consumed Antidepressants or Stimulants (Previous 2 Weeks) According to the Employment Situation of Young People (2017). 66
Fig. 3.10. Probability of Having Consumed Antidepressants or Stimulants (Previous 2 Weeks) According to Social Inclusion/Exclusion Profiles (2017). 67
Fig. 8.1. Out-of-Pocket Per-Capita Expenditure in OECD Countries, Year 2016. 150
Panel 1.1. Essential Historical Sources on Neoliberalism. 14
Table 2.1. European Member States According to Welfare Regime, Presence of HLY65+ Trend, Linear Regression of HLY65+ Trend, Sex Aggregated and Disaggregated Data – 2004–2017. 37
Table 2.2. Maximum and Minimum HLY65+, Sex Disaggregated Data, 2004 and 2017 and Delta. 39
Table 3.1. Percentage of Young People Who Report Good or Very Good Health. 54
Table 3.2. Young People (%) Who Claim to Have a Limitation (Serious or Not) Due To Health Problems. 56
Table 3.3. Frequency of Young People at Risk of Psychological Distress (GHQ12 > = 3). 59
Table 3.4. Young People Who Have Diagnosed Depression, Anxiety or Other Mental Problems. 63
Table 3.5. Young People Who Have Used Antidepressants or Stimulants (Previous 2 Weeks). 65
Table 8.1. Health Expenditure in Italy 2000–2016. 148

List of Contributors

Micol Bronzini has a PhD in Economic Sociology from the University of Brescia. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economic and Social Sciences, Polytechnic University of Marche (Italy), where she teaches Sociology of Health and Medicine and Sociology of Organisations. As a member of the scientific committee of the Interdepartmental Research Centre on Health and Social Integration she coordinates the research stream on Narrative Medicine. Her current work focusses on healthcare and housing policies, with specific reference to their impact at the micro and meso levels.

Karel Čada works at University of Economics in Prague. He holds a PhD in Sociology from Charles University. Between 2013 and 2014, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Australian National University in Canberra. He is interested in the roles of narrative and discourse in public policies and the role of the future in legitimation of such policies. His main interests are migration and social exclusion, healthcare and climate change policies. In his dissertation, he explored the relationship between discourses, narratives and institutional change in post-socialist healthcare.

Mario Cardano is a Full Professor of Sociology of Health and Qualitative Methods for Social Research at the University of Turin. His research has tackled two interwoven topics: the relationship between health and society and the methods and epistemologies of qualitative research. In the area of sociology of health, he has studied the issue of health inequalities, being involved in a series of international research projects carried out in multidisciplinary teams, composed of both epidemiologists and sociologists. More recently, he has focussed his research on mental health, through the study of illness narratives and the ethnographic study of coercion in mental health settings.

Anna Rosa Favretto is a Full Professor of Sociology at the University of Eastern Piedmont. Her main research focusses on child and adult health, the implementation of the right to health and family life. She has paid particular attention to the participation of children in the management of disease and to the recognition of children’s agency and competences in the therapeutic relationship. Her other research topics include the relationship between expert and lay knowledge in the fight against zoonoses, and for the protection of public health. She has published numerous books, essays and articles for national and international journals.

Jonathan Gabe is an Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Royal Holloway, University of London. His research interests include pharmaceuticals, chronic illness, health professions and health policy. He has edited or written 14 books (and 2 second editions) and published his research in journals such as Health, Health, Risk & Society, Health Sociology Review, Social Science and Medicine, Sociological Review, Sociology, Sociology Compass and Sociology of Health & Illness. He is a past Editor of Sociology of Health & Illness and a past Chair of the European Sociological Association RN16, Sociology of Health and Illness. He is also a past President of the International Sociological Association RC15 Sociology of Health and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Pedro Gallo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, University of Barcelona. He gained his PhD in Social Science and Administration and his Masters in European Social Policy both from the London School of Economics. His previous professional experience includes working for the Catalan Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Research, the Catalan Institute of Health, the Seny Foundation for Research into Mental Health, the International University of Catalonia, and the Spanish Network for Research in Epidemiology and Public Health. His research interests and major publications focus on the sociology of health, health policy analysis, the sociology of organisations and research impact assessment. Currently, he is working on several projects and articles focussed on inequalities in health, the health of young people and the migrant population, European Health Technology Assessment policy and knowledge translation models.

Luigi Gariglio gained his PhD in Sociology from the University of Milan. He is a Lecturer in Sociology and qualitative methods in the Department of Cultures, Politics and Society at the University of Turin where he is the Deputy Director of the Qualitative Research Lab. His research interests include mental health, coercion and prisons. He published ’Doing Coercion’. An Ethnography of Italian Male Prison Officers using Force (Routledge, 2018).

Angela Genova conducts research on welfare policies from a comparative regional, national and European perspective with particular attention to social policies and health policies in the Department of Economics, Society and Politics of the University of Urbino Carlo Bo. She has acquired skills in the evaluation of public policies and social care/health services by working with colleagues nationally and internationally and by participating in European research and training networks. She has held the position of Scientific Manager and Coordinator of several European projects (Progress, 7th FP, Daphne). She is a past Vice-chair of the European Sociological Association Sociology of Health and Illness research network.

Guido Giarelli is a Full Professor of Sociology at the University ‘Magna Græcia’ of Catanzaro Italy. He was the Director of the Centro di Ricerca Interdipartimentale sui Sistemi sanitari e le Politiche di welfare and is currently Director of a Masters in ‘Medical Humanities’. He was a Founder and first President (2002–2005) of the Società Italiana di Sociologia della Salute; first Secretary (2005–2008) and then member (2008–2011) of the board of the Section of Sociologia della salute e della medicina of the Associazione Italiana di Sociologia; member of the board (2004–2006) and then elected President (2006–2010) of the European Society for Health and Medical Sociology; member of the board (2010–2014) and then vice-president (2014–2018) of the Research Committee 15 (Sociology of Health) of the International Sociological Association. Currently, he is a member of the board the European Sociological Association Research Network 16 on Sociology of Health and Illness and he is the Coordinator of the Section of Sociologia della salute e della medicina of the Associazione Italiana di Sociologia. His main research interests are in the sociology of health and medicine, particularly comparative health systems, self-help and civil society in health care reforms, non-conventional medicines and integrated medicine, illness narratives, person-centred medicine and aging and the life course.

Petra A. Honová is a PhD researcher in the Sociology Programme of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague. Her main research interests are civil society, political culture, participation and social movements, especially from the point of view of pragmatic and cultural sociology. Her forthcoming dissertation examines symbolic boundaries between political activism and formal politics in the Czech Republic. Currently, she also participates in ‘Transnational Populism and European Democracy’ and ‘The Effect of Populism on Young Citizens’ research projects.

Albert Julià is a Social Researcher at Barcelona City Council, and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology, University of Barcelona. He was awarded his PhD in Sociology from the University of Barcelona and has a Masters degree in Research in Sociology and Demography from Universitat Pompeu Fabra and a postgraduate degree in Environmental Management: Person and Society from the University of Barcelona. His previous professional experiences include working for the Research and Expertise Centre for Survey Methodology and the Institute of Childhood and the Urban World. His research interests include the sociology of education, sociology of the family, poverty and social exclusion and research methods. He is currently working on several articles and projects focussed on intergenerational relations, the attitudes and behaviour of children and adolescents and the educational gender gap.

Simone Lombardini is a PhD student in the Department of Economics, University of Genoa. He has undertaken research in the Department of Economics at Oslo University, Norway, and in the Department of Economics at Warwick University, United Kingdom. His research is multifaceted involving: input–output analysis applied to the calculation of fiscal multipliers, input–output analysis of income distribution on inflation, ICT innovation and long-term technological unemployment, distributional effects of the new ICT, business cycle related to income distribution and ICT innovation, financial crises and the bursting of financial bubbles. Currently he is involved in several research projects in his field.

Linda Lombi, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Milan). She teaches Sociology and Methods, Sociology of Sport and Digital Health. She is an expert in health sociology and methodology in social research, with a specific focus on digital methods. She is a member of ‘Engageminds Hub’ (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore), a network research centre active in the study of patient engagement and participation in healthcare. Her research focusses on: health sociology, drug policies, participatory medicine, patient engagement, digital health, chronic disease, patient reported outcomes and health promotion.

Marga Marí-Klose is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, University of Barcelona. She was awarded her PhD in Sociology by the University of Barcelona, and has a Master’s in Social Policy and Research from the London School of Economics and a Master’s in Gender and Development from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Her previous professional experience includes working for the Institute of Childhood and Urban World and acting as Research Coordinator of the Spanish Report on Social Inclusion (2008–2009). Her research interests include poverty and social exclusion, sociology of the family and intergenerational relations.

Luca Mori teaches Sociology at the University of Verona. His research focusses on social theory, sociology of health and illness and social imaginaries. His most recent publications include Il flebile bisbiglio degli organi. Datificazione della salute e processi di costruzione identitaria (Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia, 2019); Le vie sociali dell’immaginario (with P. L. Marzo, Mimesis 2019); I numeri dell’io. Immaginario neoliberale e quantificazione del sé (Im@ago 2018). An ambiguous health education: The quantified self and the medicalisation of the mental sphere (with A. Maturo and V. Moretti; Italian Journal of Sociology of Education, 2016).

Anastasia Novkunskaya is a Sociologist and Research Fellow in the Gender Studies Program, European University at Saint-Petersburg. In 2015, she was a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 2019–2020, she was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki and Oxford University Russia Fellow. She graduated from the doctoral program in Social Sciences and defended her PhD dissertation at the University of Helsinki in 2020. Her PhD thesis is devoted to the arrangement of maternity care services in small towns in Russia. Her key research fields are the sociology of health and medicine and sociology of professions.

Dino Numerato is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic). He studied Sociology at the Masaryk University in Brno where he also obtained a PhD in Sociology. He was a Research Fellow at Loughborough University (United Kingdom), Bocconi University (Italy) and University La Sapienza (Italy). His research has also been focussed on civic engagement related to healthcare, sport and migration. He is the author of Football Fans, Activism and Social Change(Routledge, 2018). His work has also been published in Sociology of Health & Illness, Sociology, Current Sociology, Qualitative Research and Journal of Consumer Culture.

Benedetta Polini has a PhD in the Sociology of Cultural Phenomena and Legal Processes from the University of Urbino Carlo Bo. She is a Research Fellow at the Department of Economics and Social Sciences, Polytechnic University of Marche (Italy). She is a member of the Research Centre on Health and Social Integration. Her current work focusses on family relations, care and social impact evaluation.

Ted Schrecker, a Canadian political scientist who moved to the United Kingdom in 2013, is a Professor of Global Health Policy at the Population Health Sciences Institute, Newcastle University. His research focusses on the political economy of health on multiple scales; issues at the interface of science, ethics, public policy and law; and global health justice. He is the Co-author of Fatal Indifference: The G8, Africa and Global Health (University of Cape Town Press, 2004) and How Politics Makes Us Sick: Neoliberal Epidemics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) and the Editor of the Research Companion to the Globalization of Health (Ashgate, 2012). His research has been published in journals including Critical Public Health, Global Public Health, Globalization and Health, Health & Place, Review of International Political Economy, Social Science & Medicine and Sociology Compass. From 2014 to 2019, he served as the Co-editor of the Journal of Public Health.

Francesca Zaltron is a Research Fellow in the Department of Law and Economics, Political and Social Sciences of the University of Eastern Piedmont. Her main research interests concern childhood, health and parenting. In particular, she has carried out research on agency and the recognition of childhood competence in the management of illness experiences and therapeutic relationships. Her other topics of research include the relationship between experiential knowledge and expert knowledge in the fight against zoonoses. She has published several books and articles on these research topics.

About the Editors

Mario Cardano is a Full Professor of Sociology of Health and Qualitative Methods for Social Research at the University of Turin. His research has tackled two interwoven topics: the relationship between health and society and the methods and epistemologies of qualitative research. In the area of sociology of health, Mario has studied the issue of health inequalities, being involved in a series of international research projects carried out in multidisciplinary teams, composed of both epidemiologists and sociologists. More recently, he has focussed his research on mental health, through the study of illness narratives and the ethnographic study of coercion in mental health settings.

Jonathan Gabe is an Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Royal Holloway, University of London. His research interests include pharmaceuticals, chronic illness, health professions and health policy. He has edited or written 14 books (and 2 second editions) and published his research in journals such as Health, Health, Risk & Society, Health Sociology Review, Social Science and Medicine, Sociological Review, Sociology, Sociology Compass and Sociology of Health & Illness. He is a past editor of Sociology of Health & Illness and a past chair of the European Sociological Association RN16, Sociology of Health and Illness. He is also a past President of the International Sociological Association RC15 Sociology of Health and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Angela Genova conducts research on welfare policies from a comparative regional, national and European perspective with a particular attention to social policies and health policies in the Department of Economics, Society and Politics of the University of Urbino Carlo Bo. She has acquired skills in the evaluation of public policies and social care/health services by working with colleagues nationally and internationally and by participating in European research and training networks. She has held the position of scientific manager and coordinator of several European projects (Progress, 7th FP, Daphne). She is a past vice-chair of the European Sociological Association Sociology of Health and Illness research network.

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the support of the European Sociological Association (Research Network 16 Sociology of Health and Illness) and the Italian Association of Sociology (AIS) (Sociology of Health and Medicine Section) in organising the conference in Turin in April 2018, on which this book is based. We are particularly grateful to the AIS for supporting the cost of proofreading for the chapters of the Italian authors.