J Beckfield
An institutional theory of welfare state effects on the distribution of population health
Beckfield, J; Bambra, C; Eikemo, T; Huijts, T; McNamara, C; Wendt, C
Authors
C Bambra
T Eikemo
T Huijts
C McNamara
C Wendt
Abstract
Social inequalities in health endure, but also vary, through space and time. Building on research that documents the durability and variability of health inequality, recent research has turned towards the welfare state as a major explanatory factor in the search for causes of health inequality. With the aims of (i) creating an organizing framework for this new scholarship, (ii) developing the fundamental-cause approach to social epidemiology and (iii) integrating insights from social stratification and health inequalities research, we propose an institutional theory of health inequalities. Our institutional theory conceptualizes the welfare state as an institutional arrangement – a set of ‘rules of the game’ – that distributes health. Drawing on the institutional turn in stratification scholarship, we identify four mechanisms that connect the welfare state to health inequalities by producing and modifying the effects of the social determinants of health. These mechanisms are: redistribution, compression, mediation and imbrication (or overlap). We describe how our framework organizes comparative research on the social determinants of health, and we identify new hypotheses our framework implies.
Citation
Beckfield, J., Bambra, C., Eikemo, T., Huijts, T., McNamara, C., & Wendt, C. (2015). An institutional theory of welfare state effects on the distribution of population health. Social Theory & Health, 13(3-4), 227-244. https://doi.org/10.1057/sth.2015.19
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | May 1, 2015 |
Publication Date | Aug 1, 2015 |
Deposit Date | Apr 26, 2016 |
Publicly Available Date | Jun 17, 2016 |
Journal | Social Theory & Health |
Print ISSN | 1477-8211 |
Electronic ISSN | 1477-822X |
Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 13 |
Issue | 3-4 |
Pages | 227-244 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1057/sth.2015.19 |
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Copyright Statement
This is a post-peer-review pre-copyedit version of an article published in Social theory and health. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Beckfield, J. and Bambra, C. and Eikemo, T. and Huijts, T. and McNamara, C. and Wendt, C. (2015) 'An institutional theory of welfare state effects on the distribution of population health,.', Social theory and health., 13 (3-4). pp. 227-244 is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/sth.2015.19
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