The globalised health industry | AQA A-Level Sociology
Updated: 2 days ago
For Specification 7192
AQA A-Level Sociology | Free Revision Notes
Estimated study time: 50–65 minutes
The globalised health industry A-Level Sociology revision topic examines health and medicine within an increasingly interconnected social world. AQA requires Health students to understand the role of medicine, the health professions and the globalised health industry. This final Health lesson develops the role of medicine [The role of medicine] and health professions [Health professions] by widening the scale of analysis beyond particular professional relationships. The key task is to explain what globalisation means for health and medicine and evaluate why a global health industry is sociologically significant.
Learning Objectives 🎯
By the end of this revision page, you should be able to:
Explain what is meant by the globalised health industry.
Explain why globalisation is relevant to the sociological study of health and medicine.
Examine how global interconnectedness may affect health and medicine.
Analyse the globalised health industry using concepts of social structure, power and inequality.
Evaluate the sociological significance of a globalised health industry.
Apply wider AQA themes of globalisation, social differentiation and power to Health.
Revision Notes 📚
The globalised health industry A-Level Sociology revision focus
AQA requires students studying Health to be familiar with sociological explanations of:
the social construction of health, illness, disability and the body
models of health and illness
unequal health chances in the UK by social class, gender, ethnicity and region
inequalities in healthcare provision and access
the nature and social distribution of mental illness
the role of medicine, the health professions and the globalised health industry.
The revision plan divides the final specification requirement into:
The role of medicine [The role of medicine]
Health professions [Health professions]
The globalised health industry.
This lesson therefore shifts the level of analysis from medicine and professional relationships towards the wider global context in which health and medicine operate.
What is globalisation?
Globalisation appears in several areas of the AQA Sociology specification.
Within Global Development, AQA requires students to study globalisation and its influence on the cultural, political and economic relationships between societies.
This provides a useful specification-based way to understand the concept.
Globalisation involves growing relationships and connections between societies, including cultural, political and economic relationships.
For Health, the important question becomes:
How does increasing global interconnectedness affect health, medicine and the organisation of health-related activity?
The Health specification itself does not provide a narrower definition of the term.
What is the globalised health industry?
AQA explicitly uses the phrase globalised health industry, but the supplied specification does not define it further.
Within the boundary of the supplied material, it can therefore be approached as the health-related institutions, professions and activities considered within a globalised context, where relationships increasingly extend across societies.
The concept brings together two ideas:
Health industry
The wider organised activity surrounding health, medicine and health professions.
Globalised
Operating within increasingly interconnected cultural, political and economic relationships between societies.
Moving from national to global analysis
Earlier Health lessons largely focus on health and healthcare within society.
The globalised health industry introduces another level:
National or local focus | Global focus |
Medicine within a particular society | Medicine within relationships between societies |
Health professions within institutions | Health professions within a globalised context |
Healthcare provision and access within society | Health-related activity shaped by wider international connections |
Social inequality within the UK | The possibility of inequalities within wider global relationships |
This does not mean national societies become irrelevant.
Instead, Sociology asks how national health systems, institutions and social relationships are situated within a globalised world.
Why globalisation matters for health
AQA's wider specification makes clear that globalisation can affect relationships between societies.
Applied to Health, this creates several sociological questions:
Can health and medicine be understood solely within national boundaries?
How might economic relationships between societies affect health-related activity?
How might political relationships matter?
Can cultural relationships influence ideas about health and medicine?
Are all societies equally powerful within global health relationships?
Who benefits from increasing global interconnectedness?
These are analytical questions supported by the specification's wider treatment of globalisation.
The supplied Health section does not provide specific answers, examples or named theories.
Globalisation and medicine
The previous lesson on the role of medicine [The role of medicine] examined medicine as a social institution.
Globalisation widens that analysis.
Sociologists can ask whether medical knowledge, institutions and practices should be viewed as operating only within individual societies or as part of wider relationships between societies.
This creates a conceptual progression:
medicine → medicine within society → medicine within global relationships
The important point is that globalisation provides a social context within which medicine operates.
Globalisation and health professions
The previous lesson on health professions [Health professions] focused on professional roles, expertise, authority and relationships with patients.
The globalised health industry allows those roles to be located within a broader environment.
Questions can include:
How are health professions affected by increasing relationships between societies?
Does globalisation change the context in which professional knowledge operates?
Are professional roles connected across national boundaries?
How does global interconnectedness affect professional power?
The supplied specification does not give detailed professional examples, so specific claims should only be added from reliable specification-aligned teaching materials.
Cultural dimensions of globalisation
AQA's Global Development content identifies cultural relationships between societies as one dimension affected by globalisation.
This is relevant to Health because earlier lessons established that health and illness can be examined as socially constructed.
This creates a useful link with the social construction of health and illness [The social construction of health and illness].
A sociologist could therefore ask:
Does increased contact between societies affect understandings of health?
How might ideas about medicine move within global cultural relationships?
Does globalisation make understandings of health more similar, or can differences remain?
Political dimensions of globalisation
AQA also identifies political relationships between societies as part of globalisation.
For Health, this allows sociologists to examine the political context surrounding health-related relationships.
Analytical questions include:
How important are relationships between societies for health?
Who has influence in decisions affecting health?
Are global health relationships characterised by equal political power?
Can political relationships affect the organisation of medicine?
Again, the Health specification does not prescribe particular institutions or examples.
Economic dimensions of globalisation
AQA additionally identifies economic relationships between societies.
This means the globalised health industry can also be examined economically.
Sociological questions include:
How is health-related activity connected to wider economic relationships?
Does economic power affect global health relationships?
Are health and medicine influenced by economic structures?
Do different societies occupy equally powerful positions?
This is particularly relevant to AQA's core theme of social differentiation, power and stratification.
Globalisation is more than movement
A weak understanding of globalisation treats it simply as:
“Things moving between countries.”
The AQA specification gives a broader sociological emphasis by referring to changing cultural, political and economic relationships between societies.
A stronger definition therefore focuses on interconnected social relationships, rather than merely physical movement.
Health and global social structure
AQA requires students to understand the significance of social structure throughout the course.
A structural analysis of the global health industry directs attention towards wider relationships and institutions that exist beyond particular individuals.
This might involve asking:
How are health-related relationships organised between societies?
Which social structures shape health and medicine?
How does globalisation alter the context in which national systems operate?
Are global health relationships structured unequally?
Structural analysis is especially useful when explaining large-scale patterns.
Social action within a globalised context
AQA also requires understanding of social action.
Individuals and groups remain active social actors within global structures.
This means globalisation should not be treated as a force that automatically determines every outcome.
A useful analytical relationship is:
global structures ↔ institutions and professions ↔ individual social action
This reminds students that wider global processes can shape opportunities while social actors still interpret and respond to them.
Power and the globalised health industry
Power is one of the most important AQA themes for analysing this topic.
At a global scale, sociologists can ask:
Are all societies equally influential?
Are all health-related organisations equally powerful?
Who controls important resources?
Whose interests influence health-related decisions?
Are relationships based primarily on cooperation or inequality?
Consensus and global health
AQA expects students to understand consensus as a wider sociological idea.
A consensus-oriented analysis might ask whether global health relationships:
allow cooperation
help societies address shared needs
enable expertise to operate across societies
create common responses to health issues.
This interpretation emphasises shared interests.
Conflict and global health
A conflict analysis asks different questions:
Are benefits distributed equally?
Do some societies or organisations possess more power than others?
Do different actors have competing interests?
Does economic power affect health relationships?
Might global interconnectedness reproduce inequalities?
The contrast with consensus provides a useful evaluative framework.
Consensus emphasis | Conflict emphasis |
Shared interests | Competing interests |
Cooperation | Inequality |
Common health needs | Unequal power |
Benefits of interconnectedness | Unequal distribution of benefits |
Social coordination | Potential conflict over resources or decisions |
Specific examples require additional source material.
Globalisation and inequality
AQA's core theme of social differentiation, power and stratification should run throughout substantive Sociology.
The globalised health industry can therefore be evaluated by asking whether globalisation:
reduces inequalities
reproduces inequalities
creates new forms of inequality
affects different societies differently.
The supplied specification does not establish which of these conclusions is correct.
An effective Sociology answer therefore needs evidence, rather than assuming that globalisation is automatically beneficial or harmful.
Avoid assuming globalisation benefits everyone equally
One possible mistake is to reason:
“Globalisation increases connections, therefore everyone benefits.”
Greater interconnectedness does not itself demonstrate an equal distribution of benefits.
A sociologist would need evidence showing:
who benefits
what kind of benefit occurs
how widely it is distributed
whether inequalities remain.
The reverse assumption is also weak:
“Globalisation always increases inequality.”
This too requires evidence.
Linking globalisation to healthcare access and provision
Earlier, access to and provision of healthcare [Access to and provision of healthcare] examined healthcare inequalities.
The globalised health industry raises the possibility that healthcare itself operates within broader relationships between societies.
However, do not assume that globalisation automatically causes either equal or unequal healthcare access.
A causal argument requires evidence connecting:
globalisation → particular change in healthcare → change in provision/access
Each stage needs explanation.
Linking globalisation to health chances
Earlier lessons examined health chances by:
social class
gender
ethnicity
region.
The globalised health industry provides a wider context in which social inequalities can be located.
However, the specification does not state that globalisation is the cause of those UK health inequalities.
Therefore, avoid the unsupported chain:
globalisation → health inequality.
Instead, show the specific mechanism where appropriate evidence exists.
Globalisation and models of health and illness
The earlier lesson models of health and illness [Models of health and illness] examined different ways of understanding health.
A global perspective can raise the question of whether models of health are understood or applied in identical ways across societies.
Globalisation and the social construction of health
The social-construction perspective is useful because globalisation connects societies culturally.
If ideas about health and illness exist within cultures, increasing interaction between societies may be sociologically relevant to those meanings.
The key analytical question is:
How might global cultural relationships affect socially constructed understandings of health and illness?
This is a valid link between two specification areas.
A detailed answer requires supporting evidence.
The globalised health industry and medical power
Lesson 10 examined medical power.
A global perspective asks whether power associated with medicine should be analysed solely at the level of individual professionals or national institutions.
Sociologists may also consider:
wider institutional power
economic power
political influence
relationships between societies.
This does not replace earlier work on professional-patient relationships. It changes the scale of analysis.
Levels of sociological analysis
This topic is especially useful for distinguishing levels of analysis:
Level | Possible Health focus |
Individual | Patient actions and experiences |
Interactional | Professional-patient relationships |
Institutional | Medicine and healthcare organisations |
Societal | Health inequalities within society |
Global | Relationships between societies within the health industry |
Good Sociology moves between levels carefully rather than treating them as interchangeable.
Globalisation and contemporary society
AQA states that the central focus of the specification should be UK society today, while comparative dimensions should be considered where relevant, including the position of UK society within its globalised context.
This is particularly important for this lesson.
Students should therefore understand that contemporary UK health and medicine do not exist in complete isolation from wider global relationships.
However, detailed claims about the UK's particular role require evidence that is not present in the supplied sources.
Evaluating the sociological significance of the global health industry
The final learning objective requires you to evaluate the sociological significance of the global health industry.
“Significance” asks why the topic matters for understanding society.
Possible areas of evaluation include:
whether globalisation changes the organisation of health
whether medicine increasingly operates within global relationships
how power operates at a global level
whether benefits are distributed equally
whether national explanations alone are sufficient
whether global structures constrain or enable social actors.
The strongest answers make a judgement about how important globalisation is, rather than simply describing it.
Does globalisation weaken the importance of national society?
One evaluative question is whether growing global connections make national societies less important.
A strong response should avoid either extreme:
❌ “National societies no longer matter.”
❌ “Globalisation changes nothing.”
Instead, ask:
Which aspects of health are affected by global relationships?
Which remain organised nationally?
How do national and global processes interact?
The supplied materials do not resolve this question, so the answer requires evidence from additional teaching sources.
Does global interconnectedness increase choice?
A possible sociological issue is whether greater interconnectedness creates additional opportunities.
However, even if opportunities increase, Sociology would ask:
Who can benefit?
Are opportunities equally distributed?
Does choice depend on social position?
Does greater choice reduce or reproduce inequality?
This illustrates how power and stratification can be applied to globalisation.
Globalisation and social change
AQA repeatedly includes globalisation alongside processes of social change across different topics.
For this lesson, globalisation can therefore be considered as part of changing relationships surrounding health and medicine.
Evaluating evidence about global health
AQA requires the design of sociological research, including strengths and limitations, to be integral to substantive topics.
Evidence about a globalised health industry should therefore be evaluated carefully.
Ask:
What societies were studied?
Evidence from a small number of societies may not represent global patterns.
Are societies genuinely comparable?
Different social contexts may make comparisons difficult.
What is being measured?
Is the evidence about:
health
healthcare
medicine
professional activity
economic relationships
or another feature?
These are not interchangeable.
Is the evidence contemporary?
Global relationships may change.
Does the research demonstrate causation?
A health-related change occurring alongside globalisation does not automatically prove globalisation caused it.
Comparative evidence
AQA's specification explicitly permits comparative dimensions where relevant.
Comparative research can be useful because the topic concerns relationships between societies.
However, comparisons must be made carefully.
Researchers should consider whether:
the same concepts are defined consistently
the same measures are being used
data collection methods are comparable
different social contexts affect the findings.
This is particularly important when studying health internationally.
Quantitative evidence
Quantitative evidence can potentially identify broad differences between societies or changes over time.
However, numbers still require interpretation.
A numerical relationship may show:
global measure A ↔ health measure B
but it does not automatically explain the mechanism connecting them.
Qualitative evidence
Qualitative evidence may help sociologists understand:
meanings
professional experiences
institutional relationships
interpretations of global change.
However, evidence based on particular cases may be harder to generalise to an entire global health industry.
The best method depends on the specific sociological question.
A hypothetical global comparison
The following data are invented solely for examination practice and are not real global health statistics.
Society | Index of participation in Health Network X |
Society A | 40 |
Society B | 65 |
Society C | 50 |
Society B has an index score 25 points higher than Society A:
65−40=25
However, these figures alone do not show:
why participation differs
whether greater participation improves health
whether Society B has better healthcare
whether globalisation caused the difference
whether the index is a valid measure of the globalised health industry.
💡 Exam skill: A numerical global comparison is evidence of a pattern, not automatically an explanation.
A hypothetical application scenario
Consider this invented scenario:
Health-related organisations in several societies increasingly share information and operate through cross-society economic and professional relationships. Supporters argue that this increases cooperation and access to expertise. Critics argue that more powerful actors have greater influence over decisions and benefits.
This source could be analysed using:
Consensus
cooperation
shared needs
benefits of interconnectedness.
Conflict
unequal influence
differences in power
unequal distribution of benefits.
It could also be analysed through:
social structure
globalisation
power
social differentiation.
The item would not prove that either interpretation is completely correct.
Avoid describing globalisation without linking it to Health
A weak response might spend an entire paragraph defining globalisation generally.
That does not answer a question about the global health industry.
Use:
feature of globalisation → impact on health or medicine → sociological significance
For example:
Economic relationships between societies are one dimension of globalisation. Their sociological significance for Health would depend on how those relationships affect the organisation or distribution of health-related activity.
That keeps the application clear.
Avoid vague references to “the world”
Phrases such as:
“Health is global now.”
are too imprecise.
Use sociological concepts:
interconnectedness
relationships between societies
cultural relationships
political relationships
economic relationships
power
stratification.
This produces much stronger AO1 and AO3.
A framework for evaluating a globalisation explanation
For each explanation taught from approved course material, ask:
1. What aspect of health is changing?
Be precise.
2. How is globalisation supposed to cause the change?
Identify the mechanism.
3. Which dimension of globalisation is involved?
Cultural, political, economic, or a combination.
4. Who benefits?
Identify social groups or societies where evidence permits.
5. Who may be disadvantaged?
Again, use evidence rather than assumption.
6. Is the evidence global?
A single national example may not demonstrate a global pattern.
7. Could another explanation account for the change?
Consider alternatives.
8. How significant is globalisation overall?
Reach a judgement.
Comparing positive and critical interpretations
A useful evaluative structure is:
Possible positive interpretation | Possible critical interpretation |
Global connections may increase cooperation | Benefits may be unequally distributed |
Knowledge may operate across societies | Some actors may have greater influence |
Shared relationships may address common issues | Economic and political inequalities may shape outcomes |
National isolation may be reduced | National inequalities may interact with global inequalities |
These are analytical positions rather than named theories supplied by AQA.
Building an extended response
A strong paragraph can use:
Global process → effect on health/medicine → explanation → evidence/application → evaluation → judgement
For example:
One sociological argument is that [accurate global process] has affected medicine by [mechanism]. This reflects globalisation because [link to relationships between societies]. Evidence showing [finding] may support this view. However, [limitation or alternative] suggests that the benefits or effects are not necessarily equal. Therefore, the global process is significant because [qualified judgement].
Reaching a reasoned conclusion
An effective conclusion could judge:
how far health and medicine can now be understood globally
whether global relationships mainly create cooperation or inequality
how important power is
whether globalisation affects all societies equally
whether national institutions remain important
how strong the supporting evidence is.
Avoid:
“Globalisation has positives and negatives.”
Instead, make a judgement such as:
The sociological significance of globalisation depends not simply on whether global connections increase, but on how those relationships are organised and how power and benefits are distributed.
That is an evaluative argument rather than a list.
Key Words 🔑
Key word | Student-friendly definition | How it may be used in an exam |
Globalisation | Increasing cultural, political and economic relationships between societies. | Explain why health and medicine can be studied within a global context. |
Globalised health industry | Health-related institutions and activity considered within increasingly interconnected relationships between societies. | Explain the final Health specification requirement and assess its sociological significance. |
Health industry | Organised activity surrounding health, medicine and health professions. | Connect medicine and professional roles to the wider global context. |
Interconnectedness | Increasing connections and relationships between societies. | Explain how national health systems may exist within wider global relationships. |
Social structure | Wider organised relationships and institutions that shape social life. | Analyse the global health industry at a structural level. |
Power | The capacity to influence relationships, decisions or outcomes. | Evaluate whether global health relationships are equal. |
Social differentiation | Differences between social groups or positions. | Analyse whether globalisation affects groups or societies differently. |
Stratification | Structured social inequality. | Evaluate unequal power or outcomes within global health relationships. |
Consensus | Broad agreement or shared interests. | Analyse global health cooperation. |
Conflict | Competing interests or unequal relationships. | Analyse inequalities and power within the global health industry. |
Common Mistakes ⚠️
Mistake: Defining globalisation simply as movement between countries
Why this is incorrect: AQA's wider specification identifies cultural, political and economic relationships between societies as central to globalisation.
How to improve: Focus on growing interconnected relationships rather than movement alone.
Mistake: Describing globalisation without applying it to health
Why this is incorrect: The lesson concerns the globalised health industry, not globalisation as an isolated topic.
How to improve: Use:
global process → health or medicine → sociological significance
Mistake: Assuming globalisation benefits everyone
Why this is incorrect: Greater interconnectedness does not demonstrate equal outcomes.
How to improve: Ask who benefits, who has power and whether advantages are distributed equally.
Mistake: Assuming globalisation is automatically harmful
Why this is incorrect: This is equally unsupported without evidence.
How to improve: Compare consensus and conflict interpretations and judge them using evidence.
Mistake: Treating national and global explanations as mutually exclusive
Why this is incorrect: National health institutions can operate within global relationships.
How to improve: Consider how national and global processes interact.
Mistake: Confusing the global health industry with health professions
Why this is incorrect: Health professions are one part of the wider Health specification requirement.
How to improve: Use health professions [Health professions] for professional roles and this lesson for the broader global context.
Mistake: Claiming a global pattern from one national example
Why this is incorrect: One society may not represent global relationships.
How to improve: Evaluate the representativeness and comparative basis of the evidence.
Mistake: Assuming association demonstrates an effect of globalisation
Why this is incorrect: A health change occurring alongside greater globalisation does not prove globalisation caused it.
How to improve: Identify and support the causal mechanism.
Exam-Style Questions ✍️
Question 1
Identify the three types of relationships between societies that AQA's Global Development content associates with globalisation. [3 marks]
Question 2
Explain what is meant by the globalised health industry. [2 marks]
Question 3
Explain two reasons why health and medicine can be studied within a globalised context. [4 marks]
Question 4
Explain two ways in which power may be relevant to the sociological study of the globalised health industry. [4 marks]
Question 5
Explain how consensus and conflict approaches may produce different interpretations of global health relationships. [6 marks]
Question 6
Analyse why growing global interconnectedness does not necessarily mean that the benefits of the global health industry are equally distributed. [8 marks]
Question 7
Explain why sociologists should consider both national and global social structures when studying contemporary health and medicine. [6 marks]
Question 8
Read the following hypothetical item:
Health organisations in several societies increasingly cooperate and share expertise. Supporters argue that these relationships benefit all participating societies. Critics point out that some organisations and societies possess greater economic and political influence than others.
Using the item and your knowledge of Sociology, analyse two interpretations of the globalised health industry. [10 marks]
Question 9
Read the following hypothetical item:
Researchers find that a health outcome improved during the same period that a society became more closely connected to international health networks. They conclude that globalisation caused the improvement.
Analyse two reasons why the researchers should be cautious about this conclusion. [8 marks]
Question 10
Evaluate the sociological significance of the globalised health industry. [10 marks]
Answers and indicative mark scheme
Question 1
Award 1 mark each for:
cultural
political
economic relationships. [3 marks]
These dimensions are explicitly identified in AQA's Global Development content.
Question 2
Award up to 2 marks for an answer explaining the globalised health industry as health-related institutions or activity operating within increasingly interconnected relationships between societies.
Question 3
Possible points include:
Globalisation increases relationships between societies.
Health and medicine therefore operate within wider cultural, political or economic contexts.
Medicine need not be analysed solely within national boundaries.
Professional and institutional relationships may exist within broader global structures.
Contemporary UK society is itself situated within a globalised context.
Award credit for two developed points.
Question 4
Possible answers include:
Different societies may possess unequal influence.
Organisations may differ in their capacity to shape decisions.
Economic relationships may involve unequal power.
Political relationships may affect influence.
Power may affect how benefits are distributed.
Award credit only where the link to the global health industry is explained.
Question 5
A developed answer should explain that:
A consensus interpretation may emphasise cooperation, shared health needs and benefits from interconnectedness.
Greater relationships between societies may therefore be interpreted as socially useful.
A conflict interpretation may focus on unequal economic or political power.
It may question whether all societies or groups benefit equally.
It may also ask whose interests have the greatest influence.
Higher-quality answers will compare the two interpretations directly.
Question 6
A strong response may explain that:
Greater connection does not remove existing social inequality.
Societies and organisations may differ in economic or political power.
Opportunities created by globalisation may therefore be distributed unequally.
The ability to benefit may depend on existing social position.
An increase in overall opportunities does not demonstrate equal access to those opportunities.
Evidence is needed about the distribution of benefits, rather than simply the existence of global connections.
The strongest answers will connect globalisation to power and stratification.
Question 7
Indicative content:
AQA's central focus is contemporary UK society but situated within its globalised context.
Health institutions continue to operate within national societies.
At the same time, cultural, political and economic relationships increasingly connect societies.
National structures may therefore influence how global processes are experienced.
Global processes may also shape the context in which national health and medicine operate.
The strongest answers should avoid claiming either national or global structures have become irrelevant.
Question 8
Two clear interpretations can be developed from the item.
Consensus interpretation
Cooperation and sharing expertise may help societies address shared health needs. This interpretation focuses on the potential benefits of global interconnectedness.
Conflict interpretation
The unequal economic and political influence mentioned in the item suggests relationships may not be equal. More powerful actors may have greater capacity to shape decisions or benefits.
Strong responses should analyse the contrast rather than simply repeat the item.
Question 9
Possible limitations include:
Correlation does not establish causation
The health improvement occurred at the same time as greater international connection, but this does not prove that globalisation produced the improvement.
Alternative explanations
Another social process may have caused some or all of the change.
Students may also note that:
the measure of globalisation may have limited validity
one society cannot automatically establish a wider global pattern
the researchers need evidence of the specific mechanism linking international networks to the health outcome.
Question 10
A strong answer should nevertheless:
Define the globalised health industry clearly.
Explain how health and medicine are situated within global cultural, political or economic relationships.
Analyse one possible benefit of global interconnectedness.
Analyse how unequal power may affect global health relationships.
Apply consensus and conflict perspectives where relevant.
Consider the relationship between national and global social structures.
Evaluate whether globalisation affects all societies or groups equally.
Use relevant comparative evidence.
Distinguish association from causation when assessing global changes.
Reach a reasoned judgement about how important globalisation is for understanding contemporary health and medicine.
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