The Construction of Social Health Systems : History and Self-Reference of Medicine and Public Health.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Costa, João.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (325 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Bielefeld : transcript Verlag, 2025.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Despite governmental and international funding as well as numerous publications on health systems, questions remain.João Costa offers new insight into health systems thinking by emphasizing the social nature of health systems.

Contents:

Cover

Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface

Chapter 1: Introduction

PART I

Chapter 2: Social Systems Theory

Concepts

Observing systems

Chapter 3: Self‐Reference

Symbolic medium

Medicine self‐reference as science and as practice

Public health

Health systems

PART II

Chapter 4: The History of Medicine in Four Acts

First period (from the fifth century BC to the fifth century AD). Craftsmen's medicine, observing the surface of the body at the bedside

Characteristics of the period

System's features

Complexities

Summary of medicine self‐reference: first period

Second period (from the fifth to the fifteenth century). Medicine of books, universities and hospitals

Characteristics of the second period

Summary of medicine self‐reference: second period

Third period (from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century Reformation, Renaissance and Enlightenment). Medicine of the visible inside the body

medicine as science and technique

Complexity and causes

Self‐reference and complexities

Summary of medicine self‐reference: third period

Fourth period (from the nineteenth to the twenty‐first century). Medicine of the invisible made visible, medicine of specialities and medicine of the health systems

Summary of medicine self‐reference: fourth period

Chapter 5: Canguilhem and Foucault

Foucault

Medicine of species

The gaze and the clinical

The French Revolution and its health concerns

Canguilhem

Health system

Conclusions of the chapter

Foucault and the Greeks

Complexity and meaning surplus

Closure of the system

Closure and power: a few words

Final remarks

PART III.

Chapter 6: "Anatomy" of Public Health: Indicators and Self‐Reference

Introduction

The form of problem

Meanings and complexities: what the theory tells us

Indicators: anatomical features of public health

(A) Indicators directly concerned with population's health needs and risks

(B) Indicators linked to means for achieving the necessary conditions for healthcare provision

(C) Indicators mainly of interest to observers outside the health system

Discussion

Concluding remarks

Risk

Luhmann's approach to risk

Take‐home messages

Chapter 7: The Construction of the Self‑Reference of Social Health Systems

Self‐reference and complexity

(1) How does the history of medicine show the development of self‐reference?

(2) How did medicine self‐reference become the foundation of the self reference of health systems?

(3) How did the coupling of the self‐references of medicine and public health create health systems?

PART IV

Chapter 8: Concluding Remarks

Ways of looking

Chapter 9: Advanced Theoretical Topics

Decision, tautology and paradox

Studying self‐reflection

Social differentiation, form of problem and complexity

Symbolic medium and second‐order observation

The body

The symbolically generalized medium of communication (SGMC)

Second‐order observation

Public health, self‐reference of a scientific domain

Appendix

References

Mentioned in the book

Further reading

Brief Glossary of Luhmann's Terms

Index.

Notes:

This eBook is made available Open Access under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

3-8394-4028-9

9783839440285