The equity turn in palliative and end of life care research: lessons from the poverty literature

Richards, N. (2022) The equity turn in palliative and end of life care research: lessons from the poverty literature. Sociology Compass, 16(5), e12969. (doi: 10.1111/soc4.12969)

Abstract

Palliative and end of life care researchers are being issued ‘wake up’ calls that they need to start adopting an equity framework and pay more attention to how the social determinants of health impact people at the end of their lives. Acknowledging systemic health inequities has become even more important during the COVID-19 pandemic. I argue that within this new equity-driven agenda, learning needs to be incorporated from decades of work within critical poverty studies which critiques the very concept of poverty. I highlight the most relevant of these critiques and advocate for the transfer and translation of these arguments into palliative and end of life care research by scholars working in the field. Just as poverty studies was critiqued in the 1990s for theoretical weakness and an uncritical empiricism, so palliative care and end of life research needs to go beyond its almost exclusive concentration on measurement to show a deeper awareness of, and even a commitment to changing, the structural context within which people are dying. I argue that just as critical poverty scholars and primary care researchers have argued for a fairer political-economic system, so palliative and end of life researchers need to not only ‘wake up’ but also ‘stand up’ and become more political.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Richards, Dr Naomi
• Authors: Richards, N.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social & Environmental Sustainability
• Journal Name: Sociology Compass
• Publisher: Wiley
• ISSN: 1751-9020
• ISSN (Online): 1751-9020
• Published Online: 15 March 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 The Author
• First Published: First published in Sociology Compass 16(5): e12969
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
304429		Dying at the Margins: uncovering the reasons for unequal access to home dying for the socio-economically deprived	Naomi Richards	Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)	ES/S014373/1	IS - Interdisciplinary Studies