This textbook will introduce undergraduate and lower-level graduate students to this rapidly-growing field. The text is designed to be used as the backboneof a health geography course, covering relevant theoretical and methodological background, combined with case studies that exemplify the issues covered andencourage students to apply what they have learned. The text will be divided into three sections which consider distinct approaches and techniques related to health geographies. The first section will introduce ecological approaches,with a focus on how natural and built environments affect human health. For instance, how have irrigation projects influenced the spread of water-borne diseases? How can modern healthcare settings, such as hospitals, affect the spread and evolution of pathogens? The second section discusses social aspects of health and healthcare, considering health as not merely the result of a pathogen interacting with a particular human host, but also as influenced by a wide variety of social factors (e.g., economics, politics, identity), which ultimately have an impact on who suffers from what and where. The third section integrates these themes and considers the geographic techniques and approaches appropriate for exploring these ideas. The discussion will cover both positivist and post-positivist approaches, and qualitative and quantitative methods, with special focus on cartography and geographic information systems (GIS), in recognition that this is a rapidly-expanding field where geographic skills are currently in particular demand.
- ISBN: 978-0-415-49806-7
- Editorial: Routledge
- Encuadernacion: Rústica
- Fecha Publicación: 14/06/2011
- Nº Volúmenes: 1
- Idioma: Inglés