Theories

Actively fighting against racism structural forms of racism and other forms of systems of oppression.

Sources:

Kendi, I. X. (2019). How to be an antiracist. One world. Brown Access here.

Crear-Perry, J., Maybank, A., Keeys, M., Mitchell, N., & Godbolt, D. (2020). Moving towards anti-racist praxis in medicine. The Lancet, 396(10249), 451-453.
Brown Access here.

Emerging in the field of law in the 1990s, central to Critical Race Theory is that legal institutions are inherently racist, and that race is a socially constructed concept that has been used by white people for economic and political gain. Social, economic, and legal differences between races are created and perpetuated to maintain the interests of elite white individuals, to the detriment of people of color.

Sources:

Crenshaw, K., Gotanda, N., Peller, G., & Thomas, K. (1995). Critical race theory. The Key Writings that formed the Movement. New York, 276-291.
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Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2013). Critical race theory: The cutting edge. Temple University Press.
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Ford, C. L., & Airhihenbuwa, C. O. (2010). Critical race theory, race equity, and public health: toward antiracism praxis. American journal of public health, 100(S1), S30-S35.
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“Decolonization, or anti-colonialism, can be defined as resisting, transforming, and eradicating the oppressive hegemonic power structures that influence our ways acquiring knowledge and transmitting knowledge. Additionally, it involves critical consciousness and awareness, accountability, and reclaiming power that has been usurped from marginalized communities.”

Sources:

Ritenburg, H., Leon, A. E. Y., Linds, W., Nadeau, D. M., Goulet, L. M., Kovach, M., & Marshall, M. (2014). Embodying decolonization: Methodologies and indigenization. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 10(1), 67-80. DOI: 10.1177/117718011401000107
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Stein, S., & De Oliveira Andreotti, V. (2016). Decolonization and higher education. In M. Peters, Springer reference: Encyclopedia of educational philosophy and theory. Springer Science+Business Media. Credo Reference.
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Smith, L. T. (2013). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. London: Zed Books Ltd.
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Developed by Nancy Krieger in 1994, Ecosocial Theory is an integrated theory examining ecological, social, political, and historical processes involving phenomenon within and across different levels, over time & space, at specified time periods and locations. It proposes to think of causes of disease not as proximal or distal, but occurring at multiple levels, simultaneously, dynamically over time and space.

Sources:

Krieger, N. (1994). Epidemiology and the web of causation: has anyone seen the spider? Social science & medicine, 39(7), 887-903.
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Krieger, N. (2012). Methods for the scientific study of discrimination and health: an ecosocial approach. American journal of public health, 102(5), 936-944.
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Krieger, N. (2001). Theories for social epidemiology in the 21st century: an ecosocial perspective. International journal of epidemiology, 30(4), 668-677.
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Intersectionality is a theory that was created by Black feminist legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, developed to capture the experiences of Black women and the intersecting forms of oppressions they experience - racism and sexism. It has since been expanded to include individuals with other marginalized identities.

Source:

Crenshaw, K. (1990). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299.
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Developed to capture the experiences of gay men. The theory describes that gay men experience stressors above and beyond everyday stressors due to possessing a socially stigmatized identity.

This theory has been expanded upon to a framework to describe three different psychological mediators that are affected by minority stress - cognitive, affective, and social support processes.

Sources:

Meyer, I. H. (1995). Minority stress and mental health in gay men. Journal of health and social behavior, 38-56. Brown Access here.

Hatzenbuehler, M. L. (2009). How does sexual minority stigma “get under the skin”? A psychological mediation framework. Psychological bulletin, 135(5), 707. Brown Access here.

Emphasizing the direct effects of the environment, many models have been developed to describe behavioral influences at various levels. Key conceptualizers include Bronfenbrenner (Ecological Systems Theory (1979)) and McLeroy (Social Ecological Model (1988)). Key assumptions are that multiple levels of factors influence health behaviors and that influences interact across levels. Thus, multi-level interventions may be most effective in changing behavior.

Sources:

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Harvard university press.
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McLeroy, K. R., Bibeau, D., Steckler, A., & Glanz, K. (1988). An ecological perspective on health promotion programs. Health education quarterly, 15(4), 351-377. Access here. Brown Access here.

Popularized in the 1990s, Social Determinants of Health is a depoliticized conceptual approach to the theory of Social Production of Disease/Political Economy of Health, which focuses on the economic and political drivers of health inequities. It expands on it, however, in that it emphasizes the importance of biological mechanisms in which living/social conditions exert their effects. Thus, this theory not only considers social determinants as factors, but also psychosocial exposures (adverse psychological stress, relative rank, etc.) and biological pathways of embodiments, with factors relevant not only across the life-course, but also at multiple levels.

Sources:

Wilkinson, R. G., Marmot, M., & World Health Organization. (1998). Social determinants of health: the solid facts (No. EUR/ICP/CHVD 03 09 01). Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe. Access here.

Raphael, D. (2004). Introduction to the social determinants of health. Social determinants of health: Canadian perspectives, 1-18.

World Health Organization. (2008). Social determinants of health (No. SEA-HE-190). WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia. Access here.

Rooted in Marxist work, the theory is premised on the notion that political, social, and economic institutions create, enforce, and perpetuate social relations privilege, which then creates health inequalities. Questioning the morality of capitalism, this theory poses that health within groups is the consequence of group relations (driven by power and resources), and that unjust political and economic structures persist because, despite being at the expense of some, they benefit those in power. Population distributions of disease, historically patterned, are greater than the sum of its individuals because contextual factors also matter, and these operate through many different mechanisms (direct, indirect, life course, work conditions, standard of living, behavior in response to social and economic conditions, etc.).

Sources:

Doyal, L., & Pennell, I. (1979). The political economy of health. Pluto Press. Brown Access here.

Navarro, V. (1986). Crisis, health, and medicine: A social critique. Brown Access here.

Conrad, P. (2008). The sociology of health and illness. Macmillan. Brown Access here.

“In the theory of syndemics, diseases are hypothesized to co-occur in particular temporal or geographical contexts due to harmful social conditions (disease concentration) and to interact at the level of populations and individuals, with mutually enhancing deleterious consequences for HIV risk (disease interaction)."

Source:

Tsai, A. C., & Venkataramani, A. S. (2016). Syndemics and health disparities: a methodological note. AIDS and Behavior, 20(2), 423-430.
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Informed by multiple disciplines including psychology and physiology’s study of biology as stress. Key influences were Cannon (1915) who coined the term “fight or flight,” and Selye’s (1936) work describing universal responses to stressors. Distribution of adverse psychological stressors (and their buffers) is socially patterned, as linked to people’s social position, and living/workplace conditions. Relative rank in social hierarchies is a – if not the – major adverse psychological stressor. Adverse psychological stress, esp. if chronic, can harm somatic and mental health via pathways that can, independently and synergistically, involve the central nervous system, regulatory physiology, behavior, and illness itself.

Sources:

Elstad, J.I. (1998), The Psycho-social Perspective on Social Inequalities in Health. Sociology of Health & Illness, 20: 598-618.

Brown Access here.

Cannon, W.B. (1935). Stresses and Strains of Homeostasis. The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, 189 (1), 13-14.

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Selye, H. (1951). The general adaptation syndrome and the diseases of adaptation, The American Journal of Medicine, Volume 10, Issue 5, 1951, Pages 549-555 Brown Access here.