Public or Private: economy, organization and the gendering of Western healthcare c. 1750-1950

Admission to the course requires a Bachelor of Arts degree (or equivalent) in the humanities, social sciences, or health sciences.

This course traces the contested evolution of universal healthcare, shaped by ideological debates over state responsibility, access, and funding. From 1750 to the mid-20th century, government involvement in healthcare grew slowly, amid tensions with as well as between private providers, entrepreneurs, and philanthropic actors. Despite limited state engagement, the period saw a surge in medical institutions, practitioners, and education—a consumer revolution in healthcare.

Focusing on the early market-driven interplay between public and private sectors, the course examines how expanding services impacted marginalized groups, professionalized medical knowledge, and how it affected the gendered division of labor. It also explores how the medical marketplace shaped individual agency and how emerging state initiatives reconfigured these dynamics.

Knowledge and understanding

• Analyze how different historical conditions and challenges have shaped the development and organization of Western healthcare systems from c. 1750-1950
• Independently and critically engage with different concepts, theories, and research perspectives in the history of medicine and allied sciences.
• Discuss the evolving interplay between private and public healthcare initiatives and its impact on the gendered division of labor and expertise.

Skills and abilities

• Compare how different historical, sociological, cultural, and gendered factors have shaped professionalization and specialization of healthcare services in Western countries
• Independently apply relevant research concepts and perspectives on different types of source material.

Judgment and approach

• Critically reflect on how political discourses and academic trends have shaped the scholarship on the history of modern Western healthcare system.

The course is taught through seminars, lectures, group exercises, which require active student participation.

The course is examined through one or more written assignments. Group exercises and seminars may be compulsory as they contain elements of examination. Those who miss any of these compulsory sessions will be given the opportunity to make up for them.

If a student who has been failed twice for the same examination element wishes to change examiner before the next examination session, such a request is to be granted unless there are specific reasons to the contrary (Chapter 6 Section 22 HF).

If a student has received a certificate of disability study support from the University of Gothenburg with a recommendation of adapted examination and/or adapted forms of assessment, an examiner may decide, if this is consistent with the course’s intended learning outcomes and provided that no unreasonable resources would be needed, to grant the student adapted examination and/or adapted forms of assessment.

If a course has been discontinued or undergone major changes, the student must be offered at least two examination sessions in addition to ordinary examination sessions. These sessions are to be spread over a period of at least one year but no more than two years after the course has been discontinued/changed. The same applies to placement and internship (VFU) except that this is restricted to only one further examination session.

If a student has been notified that they fulfil the requirements for being a student at Riksidrottsuniversitetet (RIU student), to combine elite sports activities with studies, the examiner is entitled to decide on adaptation of examinations if this is done in accordance with the Local rules regarding RIU students at the University of Gothenburg.

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The results of and possible changes to the course will be shared with students who participated in the evaluation and students who are starting the course.