Social health as a category of sociology

Abstract

The growing nature of global challenges actualizes the study of a range of issues related to the preservation and strengthening of public health as the main resource for competitiveness and national security. Various historical stages in the development of world civilization were characterized by the presence of a specific set of factors that actualize the theoretical understanding and empirical knowledge of certain elements of public health, which led to the realization of the complexity and multidimensionality of this category. The modern stage is characterized by conditions that bring to the fore the study of issues related to mental, spiritual, moral, social health, while the latter today seems to be the most in need of scientific reflection. The subject of this article is social health as one of the many elements of the structure of public health. The article is predominantly theoretical; its goal is to contribute to the discussion about the essence of the category “social health” and, accordingly, about the most effective approaches to its empirical measurement. An attempt was made to theoretically substantiate the relevance of scientific and practical understanding of the category of “social health” in the discourse of sociological concepts (anomia, “trauma” etc.), which significantly increases the practical significance of its study in terms of preventing negative trends not only in the field of protecting and strengthening public health but also in broader aspects of social development. Based on the results of the study, the author’s definition of social health is formulated, the dominant role of the sociological component in the interpretation and study of this phenomenon is substantiated. Attention is drawn to the importance of the operationalization of the concept of “social health”; on the practical significance of its empirical dimension, which is due to the specific nature of the processes of socio-cultural transformation of the Russian and global community as a whole, and, as a result, the need to search for new complex indicators and indicators that can represent their dynamics and current state representatively.