Presentations of the 16 themed sessions > Session C

Session C

Health Inequalities: Understand the Spatial and Temporal Logics of Changes in Health

Facilitators: Guillaume CHEVILLARD (Irdes) & Stéphane RICAN (Ladyss)

Measuring health inequalities (e.g. health status, risk exposure, healthcare access, quality of care, etc.), explaining their origin and persistence and proposing measures to reduce them are essential when it comes to analysing the links between health and place. This approach involved achieving a better understanding of the social, environmental, economic, cultural and politic conditions that conduce to changes in health in order to reduce inequalities. Many methodological issues are raised by the integration of the temporal dimension in the understanding of health situations observed in a given place and time. One such issue concerns gaining an understanding of the different time-steps associated with the multiple factors involved in the situation under study and the temporal models to which the explanatory diagrams refer (cyclical/linear time, feedback loops, breaking points, etc.). It is also important to take into account the tools available for studying spatiotemporal dynamics (mapping, modelling, biographical approaches) as well as the indicators (e.g. spatial segregation index) and also temporal fluctuations in socially and scientifically constructed frameworks (e.g. zoning, social categories, medical categories, etc.). These steps are necessary to explore, for example, ways of capturing shifts in current dynamics (e.g. state intervention), the spatiotemporal dissemination of health innovations (telemedicine, standards of best practices, etc.), the management of different timescales by the various agents of change or in order to make projections regarding the future of a given situation. This session aims to bring together work that contributes to the various issues raised by this dynamic approach to the relations between health and place.

Targeted Disciplines

Demography, Economics, Epidemiology, History, Geography, Sociology

Indicative bibliographical references

Andrews G.J., 2017, “ ‘Running Hot’: Placing Health in the Life and Course of the Vital City”, Social Science & Medicine, n° 175, p. 209-214.
Coste J., Fantini B., Lambrichs L. (dir.), 2016, Le concept de pathocénose de M. D. Grmek. Une conceptualisation novatrice de l’histoire des maladies, Paris, Droz.
Cummins S., Curtis S., Diez Roux A.V., Macintyre S., 2007, “Understanding and Representing ‘Place’ in Health Research: A Relational Approach”, Social Science & Medicine, n° 65, p. 1825-1838.
Elissalde B., 2000, « Géographie, temps et changement spatial », L’Espace géographique, n° 29, p. 224-236. [doi:10.3406/spgeo.2000.2008]
Lekkas P., Paquet C., Howard N.J., Daniel M., 2017, “Illuminating the Life Course of Place in the Longitudinal Study of Neighbourhoods and Health”, Social Science & Medicine, n° 177, p. 239-247.
Pumain D., 1998. « La géographie saurait-elle inventer le futur ? », Revue européenne des sciences sociales, XXXVI (110), p. 53-69.
Rican S., Vaillant Z., 2017, « Investiguer le rôle du territoire dans l’analyse des inégalités sociales de santé ? », in T. Lang & V. Ulrich, Les inégalités sociales de santé. Actes du séminaire de recherche de la DREES 2015-2016, DREES, p. 44-60.