Defining health through a critical materialist political economy lens.

It has been recognized since antiquity that the organization of society and how it distributes resources are the primary determinants of health. Yet most definitions of health in the academic and practice literatures limit their focus to the individual's experience of health and functional abilities, neglecting the structures and processes of societies in which the individual is embedded. We draw upon developments in the critical health communication and critical materialist political economy of health literatures to provide a definition of health that directs attention to the role that economic and political systems play in either equitably or inequitably distributing the resources necessary for health.

1845 or 2023? Friedrich Engels's insights into the health effects of Victorian-era and contemporary Canadian capitalism.

The Condition of the Working Class in England (hereafter, CWCE) by Friedrich Engels is a masterpiece of urban research not only for its explicit descriptions of the living and working conditions of members of the Victorian-era working class and their effects on health but also its insights into the sources of these conditions through a political economy analysis. For Engels, the capitalist economic system, with the support of the state apparatus, prematurely sickened and killed men, women and children in its unrestrained pursuit of profits. Our reading of CWCE in 2023 concludes that Engels identified virtually every social determinant of health now found in contemporary discourse with his insights into how their quality and distribution shape health clearly relevant to present-day Canada.

Desperately seeking reductions in health inequalities in Canada: Polemics and anger mobilization as the way forward?

Progress in reducing health inequalities through public policy action is difficult in nations identified as liberal welfare states. In Canada, as elsewhere, researchers and advocates provide governing authorities with empirical findings on the sources of health inequalities and document the lived experiences of those encountering these adverse health outcomes with the hope of provoking public policy action. However, critical analysis of the societal structures and processes that make improving the sources of health inequalities difficult-the quality and distribution of living and working conditions, that is the social determinants of health-identifies limitations in these approaches.

The reemergence of Engels' concept of social murder in response to growing social and health inequalities.

In 1845, Friedrich Engels identified how the living and working conditions experienced by English workers sent them prematurely to the grave, arguing that those responsible for these conditions -- ruling authorities and the bourgeoisie -- were committing social murder. The concept remained, for the most part, dormant in academic journals through the 1900s. Since 2000, there has been a revival of the social murder concept with its growth especially evident in the UK over the last decade as a result of the Grenfell Tower Fire and the effects of austerity imposed by successive Conservative governments.