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This paper reviews the author's experience in becoming a medical sociologist before the field had become formalized. The contributions to medical sociology of sociologist Selden D. Bacon and physician and medical educator William R. Willard are described. The relationship of medical sociology to medical behavioral science, as experienced at the University of Kentucky, is discussed. Finally, the thesis of the author's 1957 paper on the nature and status of medical sociology is re-examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that children, as an important social group, repay study in connection with the sociology of health and illness. The paper outlines the neglect of children within medical sociology and goes on to open up a discussion towards a sociology of child health. The paper makes three main points. First, consideration of the case of health and illness helps understanding of children's social positioning as a minority group. Secondly, children present a clear case for considering people as embodied health care actors. Thirdly, taking account of children in the sociology of health requires rethinking the division of labour and inter-generational relationships within it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While sociologists earlier this century often used insights derived from psychoanalytic theory in their writings, contemporary sociology has largely tended to ignore this body of work. This is as true of medical sociologists as it is of others, despite the fact that the 'founding father' of medical sociology, Talcott Parsons, used psychoanalytic perspectives extensively in his theorising on the social aspects of medicine and health. In this paper I make a case for a return to a medical sociology that incorporates understandings of subjectivity derived from psychoanalytic writings, with particular reference to the medical encounter and the illness experience. The paper begins with an overview of psychoanalytic sociology. I go on to review the major insights Parsons developed in his writings and the work of other writers who have more recently used psychoanalytic theory productively in theorising the sociocultural dimensions of medicine and health care. The paper concludes with some thoughts about future directions for taking up the psychoanalytic perspective in the sociology of health and illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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‘I’ll tell you what suits me best if you don’t mind me saying’: ‘lay participation’ in health-careIncreasing ‘lay participation’ in healthcare has become a popular notion in recent years and is generally considered to be a good thing in both nursing and wider policy circles. Yet despite the widespread acceptance of this overall idea, there is a dearth of theorising in this area. This has resulted in a lack of conceptual clarity which has not only hamstrung the development of empirical work in the field, but has also led to a tendency by both nurses and policy-makers to assume that greater ‘lay participation’ in health will lead to a concomitant increase in lay power vis-à-vis health professionals. The data presented in this paper indicate that this is, at best, an over-simplistic assumption and, at worst, an erroneous one. Drawing on sociological theories of the division of labour, I suggest that one way in which we might begin to clarify our thinking in this area is by differentiating between the ‘role’ and ‘task’ components of ‘lay participation’. I illustrate my argument with reference to two separate ethnographic studies undertaken between 1994 and 1998 in which participation at the level of the individual was examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that two models of illness can be identified within Parsons's paradigm--a structural model focusing on illness as incapacity for rle performance and a psychodynamic model focusing on illness as motivated deviance. Medical sociology, it will be said, has overlooked the psychodynamic or deviance model while recognizing and criticizing the structural or incapacity model under the misplaced label of deviance. It will further be ventured that while some elements of these two models can easily be fitted into a conservative view of medical practice, other elements are more difficult to reconcile with conservatism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a revision of the address given upon receipt of the Leo G. Reeder Award for distinguished Scholarship in Medical Sociology. It was presented on August 19, 1987 to the Medical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association during its annual meeting held in Chicago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is: (1) to test, in two additional states, the applicability of a method devised by Ciocco in studying ‘intercounty movements’ relative to live births and to suggest some possible refinements to his method, and (2) to delineate certain ‘medical areas’ in these two states on the basis of the findings. In order to investigate these phenomena, the live births in each Michigan and Missouri county during 1952 were divided into two components—‘In-Residence’ and ‘Out-Residence’ births. Some possible explanations of variation of the ‘In-Residence’ ratios among the different counties ere examined in relation to three independent variables: (1) number of hospital beds per 1,000 population, (2) number of physicians relative to population, and (3) median family income. Ciocco's method is found to have some usefulness; but it is shown that each state should be examined separately, and other factors should be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The American Sociological Association (ASA) co-operated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science in the annual meeting, December, 1961 by contributing two sessions on Medical Sociology to the Program of Section K-Social and Economic Sciences. The papers in this symposium were devoted to discussing some of the major problems that have emerged as foci of interest in the rapidly developing collaborative relationships between the social sciences and the health and medical professions. One dramatic indication of the phenomenal growth of these relationships is the fact that the recently established Section on Medical Sociology of the ASA now has over 700 registered members, the great majority of whom are engaged in research in one or another aspect of the health field. The administrative sciences are those disciplines that are useful in planning, organizing, and facilitating the provision of health and medical services, and Demerath identified six focal points in medical-care administration where strategic applications can be made of the research findings of these disciplines.

The designation 'sociology of health' or 'medical anhropology/sociology' indicates, at best, only the field and not the peculiarities of the field. As a consequence much work in this sub-discipline is of the genre, 'Sociology/Anthropology: Case Study Illness (or Health)'. This paper attempts to regroup the contributions made in this field in order to demonstrate the utility of establishing the specificities of the sub-discipline 'sociology/anthroplogy of illness'. Such an exercise would also provide us with a consistent framework for formulating health policies as well as for appreciating the reasons why WHO's blueprint of 'Health for All' and China's 'Barefoot Doctor' programme ran into difficulties. Furthermore, a systematic pursuit of the specificities of sociology/anthropology of illness would also force us to mutate our understanding of at least a few received formulations on the sociology/anthropology of deviance. professions, and even of tradition and modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on sociologist Everett Cherrington Hughes and his work. On January 5, 1983 Everett Hughes died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, aged 86. His death followed a long and distinguished career both as a writer and teacher, in which he had a profound influence on the development of sociology. His thought and work gave rise to particular forms of sociological inquiry and pervade a number of substantive domains within the discipline. Although not a medical sociologist, Hughes perhaps more than anyone else is responsible for placing medicine and health care on the sociological agenda and his approach continues to inform the study of health and illness. Despite his influence, Hughes's own work remains relatively unknown amongst social scientists and our familiarity with his thought and ideas derives largely through the many empirical studies of his students, colleagues and associates. Perhaps the most influential parts of Hughes's work, certainly within the sociology of health and illness, are his numerous essays concerning work and occupations.

The article discusses the paper on the contribution of sociology to the prognoses of the advancement of medicine by Jaroslav Kapr. The statement about the significance of sociology for prognosing the future states of medicine is being formulated in the introduction of the paper. Some relevant trends of development are also discussed and characterized by the author. Such trends are believed to have a global character and concern all developed societies. The change to cooperation in the area of health care is also believed to mean significant changes that include the attitude between the doctor and the patient.

Researchers have established that minority groups tend to suffer worse health outcomes compared to their white counterparts, though the specific mechanisms at play are still under investigation. The passing of Arizona's 2010 “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act,” commonly referred to as “S.B. 1070,” provides a unique opportunity to examine the effects of an increasingly racially charged milieu on Latino health. Using the Arizona sample of the 2009–2011 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, we find that the changing social setting around S.B. 1070 is related to poorer Latino self-reported health, but only for those whose primary language is Spanish. Furthermore, serving as control groups, we find no such relationship in other U.S.-Mexico border states that had no analogous legislation (Texas, New Mexico, and California). We expand on stress process theory and group position theory to explain this increase in Arizona's negative health reporting, despite traditional social and economic protective factors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The recognition of uncertainty as a pivotal issue for the sociology of medicine is longstanding. More recently, the widespread integration of new medical technologies into healthcare has led to a renewed analytic focus on uncertainty. However, there remains little work on the interactional manifestations of uncertainty. This article uses conversation analysis to examine how uncertainty is introduced and used in one specific setting: an antenatal screening clinic in Hong Kong. We focus on women who have received 'screen positive' or higher risk results, and reflect on the ways in which uncertainty is an 'essential tension' (Mazeland and ten Have 1996) in the activity of conveying these results to them. We conclude that as well as posing potential difficulties for interaction, the uncertainty of test results is also used here as an interactional resource in managing the institutionally defined category of 'high risk.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few sociologists dissent from the notion that the mid- to late 1970s witnessed a shift in capitalism’s modus operandi. Its association with a rapid increase of social and material inequality is beyond dispute. This article opens with a brief summation of contemporary British trends in economic inequalities, and finds an echo of these trends in health inequalities. It is suggested that the sociology of health inequalities in Britain lacks an analysis of agency, and that such an analysis is crucial. A case is made that the recent critical realist contribution of Margaret Archer on ‘internal conversations’ lends itself to an understanding of agency that is salient here. The article develops her typology of internal conversations to present characterizations of the ‘focused autonomous reflexives’ whose mind-sets are causally efficacious for producing and reproducing inequalities, and the ‘dedicated meta-reflexives’ whose casts of mind might yet predispose them to mobilize resistance to inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents an essay on medical sociology in Great Britain. Medical sociology is much more fun to do than to read or write about. Although there are socially approved places for both activities, they can be done anywhere and neither needs expensive equipment. If they must be enjoyed through the printed word rather than at first hand, personal memoirs seem generally preferred to how-to-do-it manuals, while accounts of changing forms and fashions or of cross-cultural variations attract only the most dedicated devotees. An alternative approach would have been to examine British medical sociology in comparison with European and North American developments. However Lisbeth Claus's recently published account of medical sociology in Europe has explored differences and similarities in much more detail than could be attempted here and several other authors have reviewed the field within the last decade. Medical sociologists are doubly alienated, for not only do they share this unease about the validity of experience, but they inhabit the interstices between the citadel of medicine and the suburb of sociology.

This article presents an essay on the subject and the social in medicine. The death of sociologist Michel Foucault in June 1984 was marked by extensive comment on his life and work in the French press but in Anglo-Saxon world, the event received simply a few short obituary notices. And while Foucault's newly published two volumes, which completed his "History of Sexuality," series, topped the non-fiction best-seller list in France, there was no such general interest in his work across the Channel. Nevertheless Foucault's work does seem to have had an influence on a series of academic disciplines such as philosophy, history, sociology and psychology. The lack of influence on medical sociology might seem particularly surprising in view of the fact that two of Foucault's books deal specifically with medical topics, namely madness and the clinic, and a third, on sexuality, has a strong medical dimension. In part his tack of impact has been attributed to the obscurity of his language and inaccessibility of his ideas.

The current situation in health care organizations, among providers and for people, dramatically challenges the "business as usual" roles of medicine, government, insurance companies, the community, and the university. Health care reform marks the first attempt in a century to consider a reconstruction of the social contract between society and medicine. While sociology stands as one of the earliest social sciences to systematically study the health care arena and create a health-focused subfield, there is a perception, not without support, of a desertion of identity from within, an encroachment by other areas from without, and abandonment by the parent discipline. We argue that these situations in medical arenas and in research fields require serious rethinking. The key lies in understanding how these phenomena are related to each other and to larger social forces, and how they offer opportunities, rather than signal limitations, to medical sociologists. We turn to the theoretical tools of sociology to help unravel the complicated challenges that face both policymakers and researchers. After framing these issues in a sociology of knowledge perspective, we use the case of "utilization theory" to illustrate the connections between society and systems of care (as well as studies of them) and to create a future agenda. We end by raising three basic questions: (1) Why is a sociological perspective critical to the understanding of change and reform in health care? (2) Why is medical sociology critical to the survival of the general sociological enterprise? and (3) Why is general sociology critical to the research agenda in medical sociology? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increased size of unit required to deliver modern medical care, combined with the effect of rural population shifts in the last half century, has made modern medicine more and more an urban development. The result has been gradual depletion of the supply of health personnel and facilities in rural as compared with urban areas. Among the efforts to reverse this trend are the special emphasis on needs of rural areas in the Hill-Burton hospital survey and construction program; the inclusion of rural experience as part of the training of physicians; the organization of services on an area-wide basis, bringing the isolated physician and the small rural clinic or hospital into a working relationship with larger medical centers; and the activity of citizens' health councils. Current research and demonstrations need to be extended, and new types of research and demonstration must be developed. Rural sociologists, home economists, physicians, and other professional personnel, as well as the rural family and community groups, all have a role to play in coördinated efforts to equalize rural and urban health opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]