Suchergebnisse

Brief separate overviews are given of the literature on sociological factors in the prevalence of illness, divided into four areas: Socioeconomic studies; social-psychological & cultural studies; historical-structural research; & studies on concepts of health & illness & their causality. Socioeconomic studies are especially concerned with the effects of social class; social-psychological, with conditions of social stress; historical-structural, with demographic & ecological factors & the historically determined relations of production. Conceptual explorations are divided by methodology (positivist, statistical, & social-phenomenological). Each section includes a bibliography. All these approaches are found to be limited; a new line of research must be developed in which genetic causes, influenced by historic & structural conditions, are related to the individual's episodes of illness. The interconnections between social & individual factors must be explored; a redefinition of the theory of disease & the production of disease is needed. S. Whittle.

Since the decade of the eighty's, the municipality has becomes the principle promoter of the 'participative democracy' giving rise to a great interest in academic circles. Nonetheless, in spite of the existent literature, there are open questions on the conditions that permit its origin and molds its scope, In what way does a participative democracy allow citizens to take part in decision making? Under what conditions do the new institutions of participation increase the citizen's power or, on the contrary, are they trapped under the control of the political parties and or governments? With the intention of contributing to this debate, the article proposes a classification of an institutional citizen's participation (pci), it presents a model for analysis that accounts for the conditioning relation of the political context on the definition of pci, and analyses the experiences of Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Barcelona and Zurich, in drawing conclusions. Adapted from the source document.