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Theories of Practice and Global Public Health

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Handbook of Social Sciences and Global Public Health

Abstract

Historically, there have been extensive explanations regarding practices/behaviors that may lead to negative health outcomes. The diversity in these explanations is often the product of various research approaches, arising from different academic disciplines. On the one hand, disciplines like health psychology generally focus on micro-level factors such as the history of family abuse, parental neglect, and mental illness as contributors to things like tobacco and illicit drug/alcohol use and risky sex. On the other hand, studies grounded in sociological/anthropological approaches highlight how structural issues like poverty and norms associated with masculinity may contribute to these problems. Practice theories, which started to emerge in the mid-twentieth century offer a useful approach to tracing linkages between micro- and macro-level antecedents. They offer a relational approach through which researchers can examine the material and discursive entanglements that inform the forms, meanings, and experiences of social practices and their health impacts. This chapter provides an overview of the major practice theories and how they have been applied to understand sexual practice.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan

    Muhammad Naveed Noor

  2. Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW, Sydney, Australia

    Muhammad Naveed Noor

  3. Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW, Sydney, Australia

    Isaac Yeboah Addo

  4. Kirby Institute for Infection and Immunity, UNSW, Sydney, Australia

    Sujith Kumar Prankumar

Authors
  1. Muhammad Naveed Noor
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  2. Isaac Yeboah Addo
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  3. Sujith Kumar Prankumar
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Muhammad Naveed Noor .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Health Sciences, Western Sydney University, Camberwell, VIC, Australia

    Pranee Liamputtong

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Noor, M.N., Addo, I.Y., Prankumar, S.K. (2023). Theories of Practice and Global Public Health. In: Liamputtong, P. (eds) Handbook of Social Sciences and Global Public Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96778-9_24-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96778-9_24-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-96778-9

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