CHALLENGES FOR HEALTH AND HEALTHCARE IN EUROPE

The Department of Culture and Global Studies (The research Group IHR) and the Department of Sociology and Social Work (The Research Group SAGA) at Aalborg University organizes, in collaboration with ESHMS and ISA RC 15, the ESA RN16 Midterm Conference.

Chair of the ESA RN16: Associate Professor of Sociology, Gunnar Scott Reinbacher
Vice Chair of the ESA RN16: Professor of Sociology, Ellen Annandale  

VENUE: AALBORG UNIVERSITY, DENMARK
DATES: 1-2 OF NOVEMBER 2012
KEY-NOTE SPEAKERS: PIET BRACKE, JONATHAN GABE & GUIDO GIARELLI
The current climate of fiscal austerity across Europe poses significant challenges for the health of populations across Europe. Deteriorating social conditions make some groups of individuals especially vulnerable to illness and have the potential to exacerbate existing inequalities in health and access to healthcare. These challenges are occurring alongside health system reforms which are shifting the emphasis of healthcare from public provision towards a public private mix and the redefinition of the service user as a consumer and an emphasis on individual responsibility for health. The work of healthcare professionals is also undergoing significant change as their work comes under increased surveillance and monitoring, raising implications for relations with patients and for the kind of care that is provided and for the experience of patients.
‘Challenges for health and healthcare in Europe’ will address the health and healthcare challenges facing European countries today. Papers are welcome on a wide range of topics, as outlined in the themes below.
 
Themes
Public health and attitudes to behaviour change 
Public health issues include: What are the challenges facing public health face today? How do socio-economic inequalities in health develop and what can be done to eliminate them? How should preventive initiatives be structured in order to have an effect on the population’s behaviour? Where in the field between the individual and society should the responsibility for health be placed in order to be effective and ethical? We also welcome new approaches to public health such as the architectural approach to Behavioral change.
Social pathologies 
How can we study the social pathologies of contemporary civilisation? How can we relate contemporary malaises, diseases, illnesses, anxieties and psycho-somatic syndromes to cultural pathologies of the social body? How are disorders of the collective esprit de corps of contemporary society manifested at the level of individual bodies, and how are the social body and bodies politic related to the hegemony of reductive biomedical and individual-psychological perspectives?
Health communication
In European societies where patients are increasingly regarded as consumers and are expected to behave as empowered citizens and to cooperate with professionals in taking responsibility of their own health, communication becomes an essential aspect of dealing with the challenges of health citizenship. How and in what ways is communication about health performed by and between different groups of citizens in public promotion and information systems as well as in different communities of practice in Europe? What is the impact of different communication processes on the perceptions and the behaviours of different social groups? How do professionals and patients in different health care settings deal with communication problems in culturally complex societies? 
Gender issues in health and healthcare 
How can gender patterns of health and illness be explained in European societies today? How does healthcare differ by gender? How do men and women and boys and girls experience their health? How useful are existing theoretical perspectives and what new perspectives are needed?
Health inequalities across Europe 
How can health inequalities across Europe be understood and explained? How can health inequalities be measured and what are the challenges of this? Which are the barriers and challenges to decrease health inequality and what will happen to societies if health inequality stay stable or increase? 
Ageing and health 
Issues include: what are the implications of ageing populations for the provision of healthcare in European countries? How can cross-country comparisons aid our understanding? How do new family formations impact the informal care of older people? What promotes ‘health ageing’?

Financial austerity and new approaches to healthcare 
What is the impact of the financial crisis on health care in European countries? How is healthcare changing to deal with costs crises? What will be the impact on populations and different social groups? How are health professions responding to financial change and constraints?

Chronic illness 
Chronic illness is a major subject of concern and problem in modern health care. We will address this subject in all its aspects: how can we avoid fragmented treatment and organize integrated patient pathways? How do today’s highly specialized hospitals handle 'multi-chronic’ patients? What dynamics and changes can be observed and analyzed across primary and secondary health care systems - across organizational interfaces in health care systems? Are there lessons to be learned from implementing 'patient-course-managers' and other formal structures, agreements etc.

New health technologies of health 
How are new medical and health technologies influencing healthcare? In recent public Health Informatics’ has been a major subject in health technology. How do new technologies such as genetic technologies, new surgical procedures etc influence the experience of illness and expectations of life in European countries today? Information and communication technology is offering new possibilities and challenges to the health care systems and to privacy and legislation. What are the possibilities and challenges and how can they be researched? 

Research design, methodologies and methods in health research
Research designs in interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research are very complex. Research in health and illness today’s research calls for new methodologies and technologies. In intervention studies in communities we are using geographical information systems (GIS), in other studies GPS technologies and often we use very integrated methods, both quantitative and qualitative, to capture the complexity in research projects. How can we make sure, that these new technologies will increase validity? On what ontological and epistemological ground are we founding our new methods and designs in health research?
 
Ethical and bioethical aspects of Health
Health research in modern societies produces all manner of ethical and bioethical problems to be addressed both in science, in patient relations, in organisations and in society as a whole. Both individual and more structural considerations will be addressed at the conference.

Open stream
The open stream is intended for papers that deal with the overall topic of the conference but cannot be fitted into one of the above mentioned categories. 
PhD session
The PhD session is intended for PhD students only as a meeting ground in which they can discuss different aspects with regard to their thesis.
Abstracts
We invite abstracts of not more than 300 words related to any of the above themes to be submitted not later than July 23th 2012. 
All abstracts will be subject to peer-review and should be sent to the following address: [log in to unmask]
Peer reviewed anthology
An anthology based on some of the papers delivered at the conference will be published. The anthology will be edited by:
•	Professor of Sociology, Ellen Annandale
•	Associate Professor of Sociology, Anders Petersen
•	PhD. Student of Sociology, Betina Verwohlt
  
Conference fee
Standard fee: 150 €
PhD. Students: 100 €
The fee includes coffee/tea, fruit and lunch on both days as well as conference dinner 

New deadlines

Abstract: 23th of July 2012 to the following address: [log in to unmask]

Acceptance of paper: 30th of July 2012.

Registration: 31rd of August 2012.

Tentative conference program
Thursday, November 1st
9.30-11.00	Registration: Coffee and tea will be served
11.00-12.30	Keynote speaker Piet Bracke: “Population mental health and comparative health research”
12.30-13.30   Lunch
13.30-15.00   Keynote speaker Jonathan Gabe: “The pharmaceuticalisation of  society – a framework for analysis”	
15.00-15.30	Coffee/tea break
15.30-19.00	Paper sessions
20.00		Conference dinner

Friday, November 2nd
09.00-12.00 	Paper sessions
12.00-13.00	Lunch
13.00-14.30	Keynote speaker Guido Giarelli: “The challenge of the Third sector: The role of civil society in health system reforms”
14.30-15.00	Coffee/tea break
15.00-18.00 	Paper sessions

website : www.esarn16.cgs.aau.dk

Yours sincerely - The Local Organizing Committee
Chair: Associate Professor of Sociology, Anders Petersen
Vice Chair: PhD. Student of Sociology, Betina Verwohlt