Читать книгу Contemporary Health Studies - Louise Warwick-Booth - Страница 33

This chapter addresses the key question ‘what is health?’ There are no easy, straightforward answers to this. Trying to define health relies on developing understanding about a wide range of perspectives, subjectivities and experiences that are, in turn, socially, historically, culturally and temporally located. Nevertheless, this chapter will try to uncover some of the inherent complexities in attempting to understand what we mean by ‘health’. To do so, an array of different materials will be drawn upon in order to make sense of what it is we are trying to ‘capture’ (or, in the first instance, ‘define’). It is important for several different reasons to consider how health is conceptualized and understood, including understanding how people experience health and how to promote it. We return to the question of why it is important at the end of this chapter. Before you go any further take some time to do learning task 1.1.