Shaming encounters : reflections on contemporary understandings of social inequality and health

Peacock, M; Bissell, P; Owen, J

Abstract

The idea that social inequality has deleterious consequences for population health is well established
within social epidemiology and medical sociology (Marmot and Wilkinson, 2001; Scambler, 2012).
In this article, we critically examine arguments advanced by Wilkinson and Pickett in The Spirit
Level (2009) that in more unequal countries population health suffers, in part, because of the stress
and anxiety arising from individuals making invidious or shame-inducing comparisons with others
regarding their social position. We seek to extend their arguments, drawing on sociologically
informed studies exploring how people reflect on issues of social comparison and shame, how
they resist shame, and the resources, such as ‘collective imaginaries’ (Bouchard, 2009), which may
be deployed to protect against these invidious comparisons. We build on the arguments outlined
in The Spirit Level, positing a sociologically informed account of shame connected to contemporary
understandings of class and neoliberalism, as well as inequality.

Citation

Peacock, M., Bissell, P., & Owen, J. (2014). Shaming encounters : reflections on contemporary understandings of social inequality and health. Sociology, 48(2), 387-402. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038513490353

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 1, 2013
• Online Publication Date: Jul 18, 2013
• Publication Date: Apr 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: Jun 29, 2015
• Journal: Sociology
• Print ISSN: 0038-0385
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-8684
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 48
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 387-402
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038513490353
• Keywords: Health inequality, income inequality, shame, social comparison, social epidemiology
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0038038513490353
• Related Public URLs: http://soc.sagepub.com/
• Additional Information: Projects : Studentship to fund a PhD