The political economy of responsibility in health and illness

Donahue, John M.; McGuire, Meredith B.

doi:10.1016/0277-9536(94)00126-e

Cited by 25 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Health professionals, such as health visitors, therefore provide parenting and health education instruction and advice, either to fill what they believe to be a deficit in knowledge, or to allow themselves to believe that they are 'doing something' (Edwards and Popay, 1993). Instead of seeking to understand why women make apparently 'unhealthy' decisions, this approach simply adds lo their burden of guilt (Donahue and McGuire, 1995). At the same time, the Children Act ignores the impact of household resources on child care and welfare, focusing instead on child protection as a phenomenon of individual responsibility and behaviour, divorced from its social and economic context (Smith, 1991).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Child protection and health promotion: Whose responsibility?

Westlake¹,

Pearson

1997

Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law

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Conjlicting ideologies of individual 'responsibility ' are expounded in two aspects of Government policy which have spec$c implications for the family: the Children Act 1989 and the Government's strategy for health, as set out in Health of the Nation. These conj7icring concepts underpin contradictions in the casting of both professional and parental responsibility for the health and welfare of young children. This paper examines assumptions about responsibility which underpin both werfare policies, and compares them with mothers' accounts of concept and fuljilment of parental responsibility, revealed during research in the North-west of England. We then go on to consider how these conjicting concepts are played out in mothers' interactions with the health visitor; a key member of the primary health care team whose role in implementing government welfare policy for young children is to act both as mother's friend and parental inspector: The impact of this paradox is that the health visitor's role under the Children Act in child protection may subvert herhis role in promoting health and contributing to the achievement of targets for health gain, as set out in Health of the Nation.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Child protection and health promotion: Whose responsibility?

Westlake¹,

Pearson

1997

Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law

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“…During the Somoza period , the vertically controlled political system favoured patronclient relationships that resulted in a lack of access to basic services and opportunities for the majority of the population, especially in rural areas (Donahue & McGuire, 1995;Hawkesworth & García-Pérez, 2003). Agro-export booms in the late 19th century were associated with land appropriations by politically well-connected individuals (Deininger et al, 2003).…”

Section: Social Economic and Political Setting (S)mentioning

confidence: 98%

From policy design to implementation: an institutional analysis of the new Nicaraguan Water Law

Novo

Garrido

2014

Water Policy

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The objective of this paper is to identify the type of barriers related to the implementation of a new Water Law in Nicaragua. By exploring the perceptions of 40 actors involved in the drafting process of the Law, this paper finds that major barriers are related to the power configuration of the water administration set-up, which creates conflicts of competences within government and at local and national levels. Our research suggests that decision-making is highly centralized, whereas local governments remain unpowered despite their relevant role in water management. One of the particular novel aspects of this paper is the linking of interview data to grammarcoded institutional statements along the social-ecological systems' variables. The institutional grammar tool is used to identify the institutional statements of the Nicaraguan Water Law and to connect the interview results to the institutional configuration of the Water Law. This allows us to understand to what extent the Water Law modifies both the formal and informal institutions that are in place.

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“…poor nutrition, lack of physical motion, and smoking) and the occurrence of certain diseases, the questions of whether people should be held responsible for their health conditions and, whether risk-takers should be given lower priority in rationing of scarce public resources have become the topic of critical debates in academia (for an overview Minkler 1999). The notion of individual responsibility for one's health has, for example, been described as an ideology of "blaming the victim" (Crawford 1977) and as a power instrument of the political economy (Donahue and McGuire 1995). Foremost, individual responsibility for one's health is discussed in medical ethics as a matter of fairness.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%