Social Justice, Structural Inequity, and the Social Determinants of Health

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering structural inequality, Marxist critique of capitalism, the social determinants of health, professional ethical codes, and the biological embedding of stress.

Social Justice

A state or doctrine of egalitarianism aimed at human freedom, promoting the common good, and ensuring the fair administration of laws, along with the view that all people deserve equal rights, opportunities, and good health.

Justice

The quality of being fair, treating everyone the same, adhering to the principle of moral rightness, and acting in accordance with the law.

Health Disparities

Preventable and unjust differences in population-level distributions of disease, incidence, quality of care, and health outcomes resulting from historical and structural inequities.

Social Determinants of Health (SDOH)

The conditions in the environments where people are born, live, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.

Primitive Accumulation

Karl Marx's concept describing the initial generation of immense wealth through European colonization, land theft from Indigenous peoples, and enslavement, which provided the capital needed to establish the capitalist system.

Means of Production

The facilities, machinery, land, and labor used to produce the goods and services necessary for human survival (such as factories and farms), owned and controlled by the capitalist ruling class.

Contradictions (Marxist Theory)

The inherent systemic conditions in which a society's operational mechanisms undermine its own stated promises, such as capitalism promising universal prosperity while paying workers less than the value of their labor to generate profit.

Antagonisms (Marxist Theory)

The structural tensions and conflicts arising between capitalists (who seek to minimize labor costs and maximize prices) and workers (who seek fair wages and affordable necessities), often resulting in social strife or revolution.

Economic Stability

A key domain of the social determinants of health relating to an individual's or community's access to living-wage employment, affordable nutritious food, housing stability, and health insurance.

Neighborhood and Built Environment

A key domain of the social determinants of health encompassing physical surroundings, walkability, access to green spaces, safe housing, quality public services, and exposure to toxic pollutants.

Healthcare Access and Quality

A social determinant domain concerning the affordability, availability, proximity, and equitable delivery of high-quality medical services, preventive care, and health insurance.

Education Access and Quality

A social determinant domain that influences health outcomes by shaping employment opportunities, income levels, childhood development, and health literacy.

Personal Health Literacy

The degree to which individuals have the ability to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.

Organizational Health Literacy

The degree to which organizations equitably enable individuals to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.

Social and Community Context

A social determinant domain encompassing cultural norms, social stigma around healthcare seeking, interpersonal relationships, and experiences of discrimination and structural racism.

Neurobiological Embedding of Stress

The pathway through which environmental stressors (e.g., poverty, trauma, structural racism) alter biological mediators such as allostatic load and the HPA axis, resulting in negative health outcomes like heart disease and depression.

Allostatic Load

An aggregate biological measure of the cumulative physiological wear and tear on the body resulting from chronic exposure to stress.

Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) Axis

A primary neuroendocrine system controlling the body's response to stress, which can become dysregulated under sustained environmental trauma and chronic adversity.

Endocrine Disruption

Adverse changes and dysregulation in the body's hormonal systems triggered by severe environmental stress or toxins, negatively impacting overall health.

American Society of Criminology Division on Critical Criminology & Social Justice

A professional division aimed at examining political-economic structures and ideological control mechanisms that exploit, marginalize, and subordinate populations, fostering humanistic institutions and critical practice.

National Organization of Human Services (NOHS) Code of Ethics

Ethical guidelines mandating that human service professionals advocate for social justice, eliminate oppression, expose systems of discrimination, and pursue systemic reform across workplaces, communities, and legislative systems.

Social Work Code of Ethics

A professional ethical standard stating that social workers pursue social change, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups.

KSU Student Code of Conduct (Social Justice)

An institutional policy requiring students to be just and equitable in their treatment of all community members and to actively discourage or intervene to prevent unjust and inequitable behaviors.