1. Time to care: why the humanities and the social sciences belong in the science of health
- Author
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Kelly, Mike, Clarke, B, Ghiara, V, Russo, F, Bockting, C, Boniolo, G, Canali, S, Conforti, M, Dedef, C, Frezza, G, Gadebusch Bondiog, M, Giarelli, G, Illari, P, Leftley, L, Mancini, E, Marloth, M, Mulyanto, J, Schermerr, M, Stronks, K, Vineiss, P, Kelly, Mike [0000-0002-2029-5841], and Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository
- Subjects
Humanities ,interdisciplinarity ,medical humanities ,prevention ,Health Occupations ,Social Sciences ,FOS: Humanities ,Interdisciplinary Communication ,sociology of health - Abstract
Health is more than the absence of disease. It is also more than a biological phenomenon. It is inherently social, psychological, cultural, and historical. Social and personal resources are both key components and key determinants of health, as it has been recognised by major health actors for decades [1–3]. However, open questions remain as to how to build systems that reflect the complexity of health, healthy lives, disease, and sickness, and in a context that is increasingly technologized. Although we find in the literature an increasing understanding of the complexity of health [4–7], the implementation of this knowledge lags behind. Biological approaches to health and disease, as a matter of fact, dominate the development of curative and preventive interventions. We argue that an urgent change of approach is necessary. Methods and concepts from the humanities and social science must be embedded in the concepts and methods of the health sciences and of public health, if we are to promote sustainable interventions capable of engaging with the recognized complexity of health, healthy lives, disease, and sickness. This resonates with the vision expressed by UK Health Secretary and by many policy documents [8,9] from the last decades. Yet, given the difficulties associated with interdisciplinary research, integrated strategies to understand and to intervene on the complexity of health and that engage with biological, social, psychological and behavioural factors are still needed. Our vision is one of radical interdisciplinarity, integrating aspects of biological, psychological, social, and humanities approaches across areas of urgent health need. These areas include, but is not confined to, chronic conditions such as the obesity epidemic, cancer, mental health. Radical interdisciplinarity entails the practical, methodological, and conceptual integration of approaches to health, as they are developed in the health and social sciences, and in the humanities. It is the combination of cognitive resources from individuals belonging to different disciplines, who accept and respect the division of labour and the resulting epistemic dependence to tackle phenomena that would not be adequately conceptualised within any of the involved discipline alone [10]. In what follows, we describe our current understanding of these three aspects, and describe how radical interdisciplinarity would change them.
- Published
- 2019