- Between weeks 8 and 12, each student should provide a weekly reflection (500 words) on the data you have collected to date.
- What data did you collect?
- What is your initial impression of the data?
- How have the data you have collected this week changed/progressed your thinking about your research project?
- What challenges did you encounter while collecting the data?
- What are your next steps?
- 2-3 annotations.
This week, I was able to narrow my research project into understanding what specifically I will be researching in terms of the relationship between health and housing insecurity and the state of precariousness through a neoliberal framework and gentrification. The scholarly sources that I have consulted thus far have understood the relationships between housing, food insecurity, and low health outcomes through the mental issues resulting from being in constant distress. More specifically, it was shown that a level of chronic stress or worry related to poor housing and/or nutrition has an effect on the endocrine systems such as the sympathoadrenal medullary and hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenocortical systems that are associated with higher levels of cortisol, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), and corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH). Elevated levels of such hormones has been attributed to insufficient sleep and other potential psychiatric problems that housing instability further led to (Liu et al. 2014). The authors also suggest a correlation of the education and racial or ethnic disparities in the social contexts that perhaps contribute to poorer health outcomes (Liu et al. 2014). Fundamental societal transformations, such as potential improvements in housing and access to health food through community-level projects to provide environmentally healthful and safe housing for low-income families, food subsidy programs, and education programs that can allow low-income individuals to re-enter the workforce in new careers, are necessary in order to observe changes in health outcomes, as indicated by the authors (Liu et al. 2014).
In regards to environmental healthful and safe housing for families, the article by Howden-Chapman in his article “Housing Standards: A Glossary of Housing and Health” provides a historical approach towards public health initiatives focused on housing as a result of increasing rates of infectious diseases observed with tenement buildings in the 19th century. He advocates of housing as a neglected site for action in which the material and social aspects of housing have an impact on the health of occupants. By discerning the impact of the physical structure of housing in terms of the construction materials and the amount of ventilation that is being received, the author indicates particular housing arrangements that may be potentially harmful for the individual. Likewise, he suggests the importance of the indoor environment as well, including heating systems, the release of noxious chemicals, lead pipes, dampness or mould in houses, and household crowding, all of which have a significant effect on health (Howden-Chapman, 2004).
While this research is significant in providing an avenue towards gaining a more in-depth understanding of the relationship between housing conditions and health, I intend to explore more in terms of the ways in which the precarious state of these low-income individuals who have less agency in being more vocal about these conditions, perhaps as they could be evicted, further contributes to health problems. By reading Evicted and other similar readings or newspaper articles, I will gain a greater understanding of this. In addition, by researching more scholarly articles regarding the framework of neoliberalism and gentrification that contribute to poverty, homelessness, and housing insecurity, I will have the opportunity to contextualize these specific research articles. Finally, by interviewing someone from Preble Street or Pine Street Legal, I can gain a more local understanding as it pertains to housing issues and related health problems locally in Portland, ME.
As far as the initial impressions of the data, I was expecting such correlations between the quality of housing and the health outcomes. Thus, it has made me more interested to gain a more in-depth knowledge of this through different aspects, especially considering the precariousness, and the disparities in terms of the populations that this affects. Challenges that I had encountered while collecting this data is that most of the research is based on specific case studies in a particular location, like in London or in bigger cities in the United States. This can make it more difficult to contextualize certain structural issues to a place like Portland, ME.
Liu, Young., Njai, Rashid S., Greenland, Kurt J., Chapman, Daniel P., Croft, Janet B. 2014. Relationships Between Housing and Food Insecurity, Frequent Mental Distress, and Insufficient Sleep Among Adults in 12 US States, 2008. Preventing Chronic Disease 11: E37. doi: 10.5888/pcd11.130334
Howden-Chapman. 2004. Housing standards: a glossary of housing and health. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 58:162-168. doi: 10.1136/jech.2003.011569
Lopez’s Comments:
Swapnika,
I really like that you are applying some of your medical knowledge within this social context. In particular, your understanding for stress on the body dovetails well with what sociologist often just simply label as “suffering.” So, think of this when trying to use a social medicine approach to your work.