This course provides an introduction to the sociology of health and illness. The main objective of this course, divided equally into lectures and seminars, is to equip students with basic conceptual and heuristic tools to carry out a critical and theoretically informed scrutiny of health and health care, focusing on the key actors, processes and structural context of health and health care in contemporary societies. The course will provide students with an overview of key scholars in the field, reviews main theoretical concepts and outlines the links between health and social theory. More specifically, during lectures and seminars the following topics will be discussed: the political economy of health care, digital technologies and health, health care professions, doctor-patient relationships, as well as health social movements.
