TOWARD A SOCIOECOLOGICAL CONCEPTION OF HEALTH

Several academic fields in colleges and universities have claimed jurisdiction over research and practice regarding human health or specialized facets of it. Occasionally cooperating, but more frequently competing among themselves, these fields have been driven by underlying assumptions about a free-market, economic approach to health delivery systems and a still-dominant idea that health is merely a personal quality or state of being. With societal interest in health at an unprecedented high level, it is appropriate to examine critically this dominant conception of health and the market-oriented, competitive relationship that exists among these academic fields. The ensuing analysis begins with such a critique and then presents an alternative conception of health. This socioecological conception retains an emphasis upon individuals but expands the definition of health to include societal and environmental phenomena. Such a broad conception of health appears timely, and some of its implications are identified to support this observation.