215111 Illness-generating conditions of capitalism and empire: The contributions of Engels, Virchow, and Allende

Monday, November 8, 2010 : 10:35 AM - 10:55 AM

Howard Waitzkin, MD, PhD , Departments of Sociology and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
Three people – Friedrich Engels, Rudolf Virchow, and Salvador Allende – made major contributions to understanding the social origins of illness under capitalism and empire. All three writers emphasized the importance of political economic systems as causes of illness-generating social conditions. Engels and Virchow provided analyses of the impact of political economic conditions on health that essentially created the perspective of social medicine. While Engels and Virchow documented the impact of early capitalism, largely before the expansion of empire, Allende focused on empire and underdevelopment. Although little known in North America and Western Europe, Allende's studies in social medicine have exerted a great influence on efforts to achieve political economic changes that improve health conditions in Latin America and elsewhere in the less developed world. While Engels, Virchow, and Allende conveyed certain unifying themes that contribute to our understanding of the connections among health, capitalism, and empire, they also diverged in major ways, especially regarding the political economic structures of oppression that cause disease, the social contradictions that inhibit change, and directions of reform in political economic systems that would foster health rather than illness. A look backward to these prior works gives an historical perspective to issues that today gain even more urgency. The works of Engels, Virchow, and Allende have influenced a new generation of researchers and activists, who also focus in large part on political economic systems as social determinants of health and illness.

Learning Areas:
Advocacy for health and health education
Public health or related public policy

Learning Objectives:
1. Explain the contributions of Friedrich Engels, Rudolf Virchow, and Salvador Allende to understanding the social determinants of illness and early death. 2. Discuss the relevance of these perspectives to the current period of capitalism and empire.

Keywords: History, Social Justice

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I researched and wrote the abstract and presentation.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.