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Racial discrimination is primarily conceptualised and dealt with at the individual level in health research and practice. Most conceptualisations, and the measures which follow, are grounded in stress-coping theories thus reinforcing individual level understandings. This draws attention away from how structures and systems reproduce racial discrimination, and further supports the very racial categorisations upon which racism depends. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the relevance of critical theoretical perspectives in conceptualising racial discrimination and how it is taken-up and measured in health research. Drawing on Indigenous, Black and material feminist, intersectional, critical race, postcolonial and political economy perspectives, we propose that racial discrimination can most usefully be understood as a relational socio-historical concept. Racial discrimination understood at the systemic level in research and measurement will support more effective policies and practices to mitigate intersecting forms of discrimination in healthcare. Critical theoretical approaches to studying racial discrimination in health research could inform future analyses needed to address and limit the harms perpetuated through individual and structural forms of discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the increased diversification of Australian families, the nuclear family formed through reproductive heterosex continues to be treated as the norm. This paper argues that this norm impacts negatively upon families formed in other ways, by exposing them to increased scrutiny. Drawing on interviews with 60 participants from four cohorts (families formed through reproductive heterosex, intercountry adoption, long-term foster care, or surrogacy), a comparative thematic analysis is presented in which two key themes are elaborated: (1) the impact of government policies and practices, and (2) the degree to which families are treated as public property. Findings suggest that families formed through reproductive heterosex were the least regulated and scrutinised; families formed through either adoption or surrogacy received a considerable degree of regulation and scrutiny; and foster families were the most scrutinised and negatively impacted by government policies. The paper concludes by considering what is required to engender more inclusive and supportive responses to all families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of post-industrialism in western societies saw social theorists pay greater attention to the blurring of traditional work and life conceptual categories and the growing role of service professions. Further, much of the theorisation around the human service professions has focussed on occupational stress and professional burnout. This focus on the challenges to worker health has limited considerations of how human service professionals can thrive, and not just survive, in demanding employment contexts. In response, the paper considers the 'lifeworld' as a conceptual resource that can encourage new ways of thinking about the work of human service professionals, as well as reworks this resource using the concept of affect to expand consideration of the interconnected, inter-subjective, bodily and emotive nature of human service work. The paper concludes by presenting a heuristic tool that can make these concepts more accessible to professional discourses and can facilitate their use within collaborative research with the human service professions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, society has witnessed a proliferation of digital technologies facilitate new ways to monitor young people's health. This paper explores a group of English adolescent girls' understandings of 'health' promoted by health and fitness related technologies. Five focus group meetings with the same 8 girls, aged between 14 and 17, were conducted to explore their experiences of using health and fitness apps. The girls' understandings of the digitised body are examined through a Foucauldian lens, with particular attention to conceptualisations of bio-power and technologies of the self. The data reveal how the girls negotiated, and at times critiqued, the multiple health discourses that are manifest through digital health technologies and performative health culture. The results emphasise that individual-based applications (apps) remove the social and interactive elements of physical activity valued by the girls. This research highlights the possibilities digital technologies provide for health promotion, yet also illuminates the limitations of these technologies if used uncritically and inappropriately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of placebo has had a long history in medicine, and has evolved over time with the introduction of randomised controlled trials for testing health treatment, the increasing research done around the psychotherapies, the development of complementary and alternative medicine approaches to health, as well as the conceptual contributions from academic disciplines like psychology and anthropology. In recent years, discourses about placebo have pursued a number of key directions, and the current review paper explores these developments. For example, psychology has looked at placebo in terms of classical conditioning and the role of anxiety. Anthropology on the other hand has focused on the role of meaning and ritual in the placebo effect and psychotherapy research has encouraged an examination of the effects of the therapeutic relationship. Our review paper concludes by outlining directions ahead for future scholarship and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper starts from the premise that embodied knowledge is critical to understanding health policy implementation. We explore this notion through a qualitative investigation of the way that knowledge has functioned in the implementation of an Australian mental health policy, Partners in Recovery (PIR). Analysis uses the theoretical lens of interpretive policy analysis and the 'embodied, inscribed, enacted' knowledge schema developed by Freeman and Sturdy [(2014a). Introduction: Knowledge in policy – embodied, inscribed, enacted. In R. Freeman & S. Sturdy (Eds.), Knowledge in policy: Embodied, inscribed, enacted (pp. 1–19). Bristol: Policy Press]. Our analysis reveals a policy problem centred around difficulties of coordination where the inscribed solution lies in individuals who must implement the PIR program in local areas. Our interviews with PIR consortium members and stakeholders show that this implementation happens through the enactment of embodied knowledge. However this implementation is not straightforward and we point to difficulties arising from the centrality of embodied processes in implementation, related to the localisation of systems knowledge in individuals and structural devaluation of certain types of knowledge over others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents an historical critical policy analysis of deinstitutionalisation and the introduction of neoliberal forms of governance in mental health policy. It focuses particularly on a major period of policy reform in the 1980s and 1990s in Victoria, Australia. Many of the particularities of the Victorian experience can be generally observed with deinstitutionalisation throughout the world. In particular, the policy discourse of rights and entitlements, consumer choice and empowerment, at times stood in tension with the service void created by the transition from large, stand-alone psychiatric institutions, to dispersed forms of service provision outside the hospital. Further, certain policy features could be seen to perpetuate patterns of coercion, abuse and neglect. This article offers a number of potential lessons for mental health law, policy and practice today, which is poised for further advances of neoliberal governance, including through the policy of personalised services, individualised disability funding and human rights-based reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suicide is a very contemporary issue in the USA. Despite the social characteristics related with suicide, the discipline of sociology has remained relatively silent on the issue. This paper builds upon Durkheim's approach by using social capital theory as a framework to examine suicide rates across 2688 US counties. Using ordinary least-squared regression modelling, we found that counties with higher rates of social capital, diversity, and population density experienced lower suicide rates. Counties that had higher levels of divorce, unemployment, poverty, education, and median age experienced higher suicide rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, Talcott Parsons' work has come under renewed scrutiny by sociologists who argue that his concept of the sick role has a role to play in current accounts of health and illness. In this paper we describe the ways in which Australian women who had undergone elective risk-reducing breast surgery (with or without ovarian surgery) spoke about their convalescence. Women presented two contrasting recovery narratives in describing their experiences, with the negative effects of breast surgery either minimised or emphasised. In an effort to explain these differences, we draw upon the Parsonian concept of the sick role and argue that the extent to which women either embraced or rejected the sick role in their accounts was related to the amount of external legitimation they had received from healthcare professionals. We conclude that the concept of the sick role may provide useful insight into women's experiences of risk-management today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study of the impact of casualised and independent contractor work place arrangements on the psycho-social health of 72 workers in regional Victoria. It contributes to our understanding of the crisis in rural Australia in its use of qualitative methods focusing on the impact of work on health and well-being. There is some evidence in the literature that casualised work arrangement enhance the health and well-being of workers by giving them a sense of autonomy and freedom to negotiate their conditions of work. On the other hand, these arrangements may make an already vulnerable group even more vulnerable to uncertain work conditions, poor pay and uncertainty for their future with a significantly negative impact on their health and wellbeing. The results of these interviews support this latter perspective and show that these workers do not experience freedom and autonomy, but rather lowered social status, insecurity and serious limitations to their ability to manage their health, psychological wellbeing and social relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]