Understanding the impacts of industrial change and area-based deprivation on health inequalities, using Swidler’s concepts of cultured capacities and strategies of action

Abstract

This article will explore the utility of Swidler's concepts of cultured capacities and strategies of action in mapping the pathways through which area-based, multiple deprivation and inequality impact upon resources for health, health outcomes and health inequalities. It will be argued that these concepts have the potential to bring the collective and aggregated impacts of resource distribution to the fore in unpicking the processes through which area-based inequalities become manifest in health outcomes. This has the potential to illuminate the some of the economic, social and political processes though which neoliberalism has generated widening health inequalities in the United Kingdom. To that end, these concepts will be employed in a case study of the postindustrial town of Clydebank. It will consider the implications for population health of changes in: the amount and quality of employment on offer; the quality and affordability housing; and the accessibility of social and political resources for those who live in more deprived areas. Swidler's concepts will be used to theoretically map the relationships between the growing wealth inequalities, widening place-based inequalities and increasing health inequalities observed over the past few decades in the United Kingdom.

Understanding lay perspectives on socioeconomic health inequalities in Britain: a meta‐ethnography

“…Other important psychosocial factors identified in the studies include shame and stigma (Cattel , Davidson et al . , , Garnham , Mackenzie et al . , Parry et al .…”

“…Where communities experience multiple large employer closures, these changes not only threaten people's livelihoods and incomes but also particular ways of life, and the impacts tend to be multiplicative (Garnham , Mackenzie et al . , Rind and Jones , Roberts , Walkerdine ).…”

“…, Rind and Jones , Roberts , Walkerdine ). Many older participants, for example, spoke with nostalgia about the days in which large employers were at their height, emphasising the strong social ties that this way of life facilitated – the ‘buzz of people’ (Terry, oral history participant, quoted in Garnham ) – as well as employers’ investment in local facilities, such as sporting amenities and parks (e.g. Rind and Jones ).…”

“…Many of the participants and study authors attributed this situation to the political and economic decisions of local and national policy actors and this then contributed to a sense that these communities were being treated unfairly, to the benefit of others (Cattel , Garnham , Mackenzie et al . , Rind and Jones , Roberts , Walkerdine ).…”

“…It affects her mentally. It affects me tae a slight extent but not as bad, I think the wife's more affected by it.’ (Owen, photovoice participant in Garnham, : 328)…”