Question

1)Which of the following is not an example of the political economy approach (or critical medical anthropology) view of disease?

A) Looks at the link between disease and both micro and macro level social and cultural forces

b) Looks at how globalization affects health

c) Looks at the ways that socioeconomic status gives health advantages to some at the disadvantage of others

D) Looks at how life is shaped only by local circumstances

2) The term political/ecology has been suggested as a term to describe the incorporation of political economic issues into the ecological/evolutionary model. True or False?

Answer 1

The following is not an example of the political economy approach (or critical medical anthropology) view of disease.

D) Looks at how life is shaped only by local circumstances.

The term political/ecology has been suggested as a term to describe the incorporation of political economic issues into the ecological/evolutionary model. This statement is true

Political ecology is the study of the relationships between political, economic and social factors with environmental issues and changes. Political ecology differs from apolitical ecological studies by politicizing environmental issues and phenomena.

three fundamental assumptions in practicing political ecology are

• First, costs and benefits associated with environmental change are distributed unequally. Changes in the environment do not affect society in a homogenous way: political, social, and economic differences account for uneven distribution of costs and benefits.

• Second, this unequal distribution inevitably reinforces or reduces existing social and economic inequalities. In this assumption, political ecology runs into inherent political economies as “any change in environmental conditions must affect the political and economic status quo.”

• Third, the unequal distribution of costs and benefits and the reinforcing or reducing of pre-existing inequalities holds political implications in terms of the altered power relationships that now result.

  From these assumptions, political ecology can be used to:

• inform policymakers and organizations of the complexities surrounding environment and development, thereby contributing to better environmental governance.
• understand the decisions that communities make about the natural environment in the context of their political environment, economic pressure, and societal regulations
• look at how unequal relations in and among societies affect the natural environment, especially in context of government policy.