From the Phenomenological Redefinition of Body to Inequalities in Health

Abstract

In the international scientific arena, there is a clear understanding of the impact that the social gradient can have on the wellbeing of the population, as well as the consequent higher frequency of mortality and morbidity in the most vulnerable and discriminated population groups based on their social and economic position. By embracing the ecological perspective of health, this paper will attempt to connect the phenomenological paradigm of redefining the concept of the body with that of urban suffering, understood as an interpretative category of the encounter between the suffering of individuals and the social fabric in which they live. By drawing on various fields of studies and a multi-systemic approach, the authors attempt to show how the phenomena of gentrification can be seen as a form of structural violence that reinforces inequalities.