Improving Service Encounters through Resource Sensitivity: The Case of Health Care Delivery in an Appalachian Community

Pierre Bourdieu's work on the political economy of symbolic power is particularly relevant to marketing and public policy aimed at ameliorating consumer vulnerability and persistent social inequities. This theoretical framework highlights various resources, or capital, that individuals possess...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of public policy & marketing 1999-10, Vol.18 (2), p.230-248
Main Authors: Lee, Renée Gravois, Ozanne, Julie L., Hill, Ronald Paul
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Coal mining
Communities
Competition
Consumer advertising
Consumers
Cultural capital
Economic resources
Ethnography
Habitus
Health care
Health care delivery
Marketing
Medical practice
Physicians
Political economy
Public policy
Rural areas
Social capital
Social life & customs
Social research
Studies
Women
Womens health
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Pierre Bourdieu's work on the political economy of symbolic power is particularly relevant to marketing and public policy aimed at ameliorating consumer vulnerability and persistent social inequities. This theoretical framework highlights various resources, or capital, that individuals possess and how these resources (or lack of) affect power relations. The authors use an ethnographic study of women's health care encounters in a rural Appalachian coal mining community to explore and demonstrate the usefulness of this approach. Specifically, in some health care encounters, social inequality is reinforced through the interplay of different forms of capital between the service provider and consumer. However, practices that are sensitive to capital increase the possibility of more successful and just service encounters. In this article, the authors examine health care practices that are resource sensitive and insensitive and offer recommendations.
ISSN:0743-9156
1547-7207
DOI:10.1177/074391569901800209