The Communicability of Non-Communicable Diseases
An Overview of Sociological Contributions to Ideas of Contagion
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2391956 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Anette Lykke Hindhede (0000-0002-0658-4858, Aalborg University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 655-670 |
| Publication date | 2018-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociological Research Online (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1360-7804 • E-ISSN: 1360-7804 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1360780418769669 |
| OpenAlex | W2802416074 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 48 |
There has been a tremendous rise in media coverage and medical research on the rapid increase of so-called non-communicable diseases. Such diseases have apparently reached epidemic proportions worldwide. In this article, I argue for the fruitfulness of investigating the communicable aspect of non-communicable diseases from a distinct sociological view of non-communicable diseases as infectious. I conduct a historical anamnesis of sociological theories that inform contemporary sociological thinking about contagion and/or collective action and the social clustering of (health) behaviour, with a particular focus on the notions of imitation, suggestion, and habitus formation. I argue that the notion of contagion is not only about biology but also about being actualised by lifestyle diseases. Based on the seminal work of Philip Strong on epidemic psychology, I discuss how - in dealing with the present threat to public order - a societal reaction in terms of a profound sense of public alarm and the generation of an outbreak of control strategies has emerged as another powerful epidemic or moral panic challenged by how to isolate the source of 'infection'. The article concludes by asserting that there still very much remains a divide between the paradigms of the individual and the social in the production of scientific knowledge about these diseases and causality. Considering health-related risk behaviour as a socially organised rather than an individual phenomenon provides more useful data for public health interventions aimed at changing health lifestyles
Criminology · Epistemology · Moral panic · Public health · Reductionism · Social science · Sociological theory · Sociology · Crime, Deviance, and Social Control · Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology · Medicine · Obesity and Health Practices
Position
Explaining epidemics and other studies in the history of medicine
Social Networks and Health
Social Network Analysis
Health Behavior Theory and cumulative knowledge regarding health behaviors
The epidemiology of overweight and obesity
Global and regional mortality from 235 causes of death for 20 age groups in 1990 and 2010
The Sociology of Habit
The Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network over 32 Years
Conflict
Introduction to the Science of Sociology
Outline of a Theory of Practice
The crowd
Moral Panics
A Social Network Contagion Theory of Risk Perception
Langage et pouvoir symbolique
The Logic of Practice
Risk, the prediabetes diagnosis and preventive strategies
Neoliberalism, public health, and the moral perils of fatness
Whose side were we on? The undeclared politics of moral panic theory
Types of Self-Surveillance
A tale of 3 tails
Contagious
The historical universal
Homophily in Voluntary Organizations
The Influence of Suggestion on Suicide
Behavioral science at the crossroads in public health
The role of social norms and friends' influences on unhealthy weight-control behaviors among adolescent girls
From social integration to health
A Concise Genealogy and Anatomy of Habitus
Peer Context and the Consequences of Adolescent Drinking
Social Problems as Collective Behavior
The Exclusion of the Crowd
Formalist and Relationalist Theory in Social Network Analysis
Social Networks and Health
Birds of a Feather
Social Contagion and Cultural Epidemics
Epidemic psychology
Network Analysis, Culture, and the Problem of Agency
Social Disorganization and Individual Disorganization
Human Nature and Collective Behavior
Techniques of the body∗
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |