Social Science and Dentistry

cover art

Cover Date:
June 2014
Print ISSN:
2040-4263
Vol:
3
Issue:
1

Beyond social determinants: a neo-Marxist approach to understanding the causes of the social determinants of inequalities in oral health

Objective: The link between inequality and oral health has been researched extensively and there are a wealth of papers utilising socio-economic status, education levels, area deprivation, and other alternatives (living and working conditions), as ways of measuring the link between inequality and poor oral health. These living and working conditions have become known as the social determinants of health and a further body of research focuses in on these leading to calls for upstream approaches to tackling inequalities focusing on these social determinants of oral health. Whilst this is a positive move, widening debates from individual behaviour to look at the wider social context in which people live, the origins of the social determinants are not addressed. In this paper I argue that the social determinants are themselves a product of the capitalist system and that if we want to eradicate inequalities in health and oral health we need to move beyond the social determinants to examine the causes of these ‘causes’. To this end a neo-Marxist framework is presented, building on a framework of biological, psychosocial, social, cultural, spatial, symbolic/status and material asset flows as a way of making visible the links between social determinants (asset flows) and the capitalist system within which they emerge and thrive.

Key words: Social determinants, oral health, inequalities, neo-Marxist

Article Price
£15.00
Institution Article Price
£
Page Start
27
Page End
33
Authors
Sasha Scambler

Articles from this issue

  • Title
  • Pg. Start
  • Pg. End

  1. Editorial
  2. 1
  3. 1

  1. The use of Motivational Interviewing in oral health interventions; overview
  2. 2
  3. 4

  1. Assessing fidelity in Motivational Interviewing interventions; an overview
  2. 5
  3. 9

  1. Testing fidelity in Motivational Interviewing oral health interventions: an example
  2. 10
  3. 13

  1. Challenges in testing fidelity in Motivational Interviewing oral health interventions
  2. 14
  3. 16

  1. An ethical dilemma: our current understanding of prevention in primary dental care. A qualitative study
  2. 17
  3. 26

  1. Beyond social determinants: a neo-Marxist approach to understanding the causes of the social determinants of inequalities in oral health
  2. 27
  3. 33