Main description:

Social justice has always been a core value driving public health. Today, much of the etiology of avoidable disease is rooted in inequitable social conditions brought on by disparities in wealth and power and reproduced through ongoing forms of oppression, exploitation, and marginalization.

Tackling Health Inequities raises questions and provides a starting point for health practitioners ready to reorient public health practice to address the fundamental causes of health inequities. This reorientation involves restructuring the organization, culture and daily work of public health. Tackling Health Inequities is meant to inspire readers to imagine or envision public health practice and their role in ways that question contemporary thinking and assumptions, as emerging trends,
social conditions, and policies generate increasing inequities in health.

Contents:

PART I INTRODUCTION: FRAMEWORKS, PERSPECTIVES, EVIDENCE

Chapter 1. Tackling Health Inequities: A Framework for Analysis
Richard Hofrichter

Chapter 2. Why Health Equity?
Amartya Sen

Chapter 3. Health Equity and Social Justice
Fabienne Peter

Chapter 4. United States: Social Inequality and the Burden of Poor Health
Laura D. Kubzansky, Nancy Krieger, Ichiro Kawachi, Beverly Rockhill,
Gillian K. Steel and Lisa F. Berkman

Chapter 5. A Framework for Measuring Health Inequity
Yukiko Asada

Chapter 6. Promoting Social Justice Through Public Health Policies, Programs, and
Services
Alonzo Plough

PART II: RACISM, CLASS EXPLOITATION, GENDER DISCRIMINATION AND HEALTH: EXPOSING THE ROOTS

Chapter 7. Structural Racism and Community Building
Anne K. Kubisch, Keith Lawrence, Stacey Sutton, Gretchen Susi, and Karen Fulbright-Anderson

Chapter 8. Coronary Heart Disease, Chronic Inflammation, and Pathogenic Social
Hierarchy: A Biological Limit to Possible Reductions in Morbidity and Mortality
Rodrick Wallace, Deborah Wallace, and Robert G. Wallace

Chapter 9. Social Sources of Racial Disparities in Health
David Williams and Pamela Braboy Jackson

Chapter 10. Class Exploitation and Psychiatric Disorders
Carles Muntaner, Carme Borrell and Haejoo Chung

Chapter 11. Beyond the Inequality Hypothesis: Class, Neo-liberalism, and
Health Inequalities
David Coburn

Chapter 12. Gender Inequity in Health: Why It Exists and How We Can Change It
Gita Sen and Piroska Ostlin

PART III: PRACTITIONERS TAKE ACTION: STRATEGIES FOR ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND WORKING WITH COMMUNITIES

Chapter 13. Initiating Social Justice Action through Dialogue in a Local
Health Department: The Ingham County Experience and Beyond
Doak Bloss

Chapter 14. The Metro Louisville Center for Health Equity: Expanding the Circle of
Engagement
Adewale Troutman

Chapter 15. Exploring the Intersection of Public Health and Social Justice: the Bay Area
Regional Health Inequities Initiative
Njoke Thomas and Bob Prentice

Chapter 16. Using Our Voice: Forging a Public Health Practice for Social Justice
Rajiv Bhatia, June Weintraub, Lili Farhang, Karen Yu and Paula Jones

Chapter 17. Estimation of Health Benefits From a Local Living Wage Ordinance
Rajiv Bhatia and Mitchell Katz

Chapter 18. Protecting Health with Environmental Impact Assessment: A Case Study of
San Francisco Land Use Decision-Making Study in Health Equity Practice
Rajiv Bhatia

Chapter 19. The Community Action Model in a Public Health Department Setting
Alma Avila, Alyonik Hrushow, Susana Hennessey Lavery, Mele Lau
Smith, Diane Reed, and Melinda Moore

Chapter 20. Tackling the Root Causes of Health Disparities through Community
Capacity Building
Anthony Iton

Chapter 21. Institutionalizing Health Equity and Social Justice in King County,
Washington
Ngozi Oleru, Michael Gedeon, and Matias Valenzuela

Chapter 22. Street Science: Local Knowledge and Environmental Justice
Jason Corburn

Chapter 23. Measuring Social Determinants of Health Inequities: The Health Equity
Index
Baker Salsbury, Elaine O'Keefe, and Jennifer Kertanis

Chapter 24. Place Matters: Building Partnerships Among Communities and Local Public
Health Departments
Gail Christopher, Vincent Lafronza, and Natalie Burke

PART IV: SHIFTING CONSCIOUSNESS AND PARADIGMS

Chapter 25. Strategies for Educating and Mobilizing the Public: Developing a Health
Equity Campaign with California Newsreel's Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality
Making Us Sick?
Larry Adelman

Chapter 26. Talking About Public Health
Lawrence Wallack and Regina Lawrence

Chapter 27. Helping Public Health Matter
Makani Themba Nixon

Chapter 28. The Ethics of the Medical Model in Addressing the Root Causes of Health
Disparities in Local Health Practice
Anthony Iton

Chapter 29. Teaching Social Inequalities in Health: Barriers and Opportunities
Carles Muntaner and Haejoo Chung

APPENDICES
A. Selected References
B. Guidelines for Health Equity
C. Figure 1. How Social Justice Becomes Embodied
D. Figure 2. Eliminating Health Inequity: The Role of Local Public Health and
Community Organizing
E. People's Health Movement Charter