ABSTRACT
Until the mid-1990s, geographical analysis of health care consumption was often undertaken by examining patterns of service utilization. Furthermore, the sites of service provision were viewed as locations rather than as contributors to, and constituents of, health care landscapes (e.g. Joseph and Phillips 1984). In this chapter we explore ways in which ideas linking landscape, language and identity surveyed in the preceding chapters can assist in interpreting the evidence of consumption landscapes of health care. This idea was first introduced in Chapter 7 under the heading ‘Selling places that heal’ (p. 125). According to Eyles (1987: 94), consumerism ‘emphasises the good life for all’ and the myth of consumerism holds that we are all equally free to choose, even though people cannot in actuality all enjoy the same type of product.
