Another exemplar of this perspective is as follows:

"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint.
When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.

                            Dom Helder Camera




At 07:58 AM 8/31/00 PDT, you wrote:
>The critical perspective refers to attention being paid to
>the role upon health and well-being of structural issues
>usually involving issues of social control and power by
>powerful -- societal interests. It involves a concern with
>looking at the not obviously visible -- a grand weakness of
>traditional health sciences approaches associated with
>positivist thought. The perspective draws upon concepts from
>critical sociology, and political economy especially
>materialist approaches.
>
>In lay terms it usually involves a focus on "the story behind
>the story."  Why is smoking the problem and not tobacco
>distribution?  Why is the problem of poor parents' parenting
>behaviours the issue, not the increasing incidence of poverty?
>Why do we consider establishing community kitchens but not
>providing a place for families to live?
>
>For some examples of the perspective see Blake Poland's work
>in the Canadian Journal of Public Health and Social Science
>and Medicine on population health, Ann Robertson's work on
>health promotion in Health Promotion International and
>Critical Public Health, David Coburn's work on neo-liberalism
>and health in a recent issue of Social Science and Medicine,
>or my modest contributions on inequality and health in the
>Canadian Review of Social Policy, Critical Public Health and
>on governments policies affecting health in the most recent
>Canadian Journal of Public Health.
>
>Finally, Kim Travers' article in Social Science and Medicine
>"The social organization of nutritional inequities, SSM, 1996,
>43, 543-553 is a masterful illustration of the perspective.
>
>My quotation below is also an exemplar of the perspective!
>
>
>dr
>
>In the early hours I read in the paper of
>epoch-making projects On the part of pope
>and sovereigns, bankers and oil barons.
>With my other eye I watch
>The pot with the water for my tea
>The way it clouds and starts to bubble and clears again
>And overflowing the pot quenches the fire.
>
>   -- Bertolt Brecht
>
>**************************************************************
>****
>
>Dennis Raphael, Ph.D.
>Associate Professor
>Department of Public Health Sciences
>Graduate Department of Community Health
>University of Toronto
>McMurrich Building, Room 308
>Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M5S 1A8
>voice: (416) 978-7567
>fax: (416) 978-2087
>e-mail:   [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Helen Keleher
Senior Lecturer in Public Health
School of Health and Human Sciences
PO Box 199
La Trobe University, Bendigo Victoria 3552
Ph 0354 447569 Fax 0354 447977
Policy Convenor, PHAA
Chair, NPHP Advisory Group
Convenor, Australian Women's Health Network