The social determinants of Indigenous health: a research agenda

Abstract

This paper starts by sketching the main dimensions of what I term the catastrophe of Indigenous health with special reference to the Northern Territory of Australia. It then subjects current research on this topic to critical analysis and finds the bulk of this work is deficient in that it is indifferent to social theory and dominated by a simplistic quantitative positivism which is incapable of capturing the complex aetiology and pathways of chronic disease. In addition, research in this mode strips away the essential political elements. The paper then reviews some emerging approaches in social epidemiology and health social science and argues that these provide pointers to a new methodology based on transdisciplinary approaches and centring the subjects of research, Indigenous people themselves, as the dominant partners in the research process.

Key Words:

• social determinants
• Indigenous health
• social epidemiology
• social science methodology
• transdisciplinary theory