Systems Theory and the Sociology of Health and Illness

Systems Theory and the Sociology of Health and Illness

Author: Morten Knudsen

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-10-30

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 1317637607

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Modern societies and organizations are characterized by multiple kinds of observations, systems, or rationalities, rather than singular identities and clear hierarchies. This holds true for healthcare where we find a range of different perspectives – from medicine to education, from science to law, from religion to politics – brought together in different types of arrangements. This innovative volume explores how this polycontexturality plays out in the healthcare arena. Drawing on systems theory, and Luhmann’s theory of social systems as communicative systems in particular, the contributors investigate how things – drugs, for example – and bodies are observed and constructed in different ways under polycontextural conditions. They explore how the different types of communication and observation are brought into workable arrangements – without becoming identical or reconciled – and discuss how health care organizations observe their own polycontexturality. Providing an analysis of healthcare structures that is up to speed with the complexity of healthcare today, this book shows how society and its organizations simultaneously manage contexts that do not fit together. It is an important work for those with an interest in health and illness, social theory, Niklas Luhmann, organizations and systems theory from a range of backgrounds including sociology, health studies, political science and management.


Systems Theory and the Sociology of Health and Illness

Systems Theory and the Sociology of Health and Illness

Author: Morten Knudsen

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-10-30

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 1317637593

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Modern societies and organizations are characterized by multiple kinds of observations, systems, or rationalities, rather than singular identities and clear hierarchies. This holds true for healthcare where we find a range of different perspectives – from medicine to education, from science to law, from religion to politics – brought together in different types of arrangements. This innovative volume explores how this polycontexturality plays out in the healthcare arena. Drawing on systems theory, and Luhmann’s theory of social systems as communicative systems in particular, the contributors investigate how things – drugs, for example – and bodies are observed and constructed in different ways under polycontextural conditions. They explore how the different types of communication and observation are brought into workable arrangements – without becoming identical or reconciled – and discuss how health care organizations observe their own polycontexturality. Providing an analysis of healthcare structures that is up to speed with the complexity of healthcare today, this book shows how society and its organizations simultaneously manage contexts that do not fit together. It is an important work for those with an interest in health and illness, social theory, Niklas Luhmann, organizations and systems theory from a range of backgrounds including sociology, health studies, political science and management.


Contemporary Theorists for Medical Sociology

Contemporary Theorists for Medical Sociology

Author: Graham Scambler

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 0415597838

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This text explores the work of key social theorists and the application of their ideas to issues around health and illness. Each chapter includes a critical introduction to the thinker's central theses, ways in which their ideas might inform medical sociology and some examples of how they can be applied.


Handbook of the Sociology of Health, Illness, and Healing

Handbook of the Sociology of Health, Illness, and Healing

Author: Bernice A. Pescosolido

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2010-12-17

Total Pages: 563

ISBN-13: 1441972617

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The Handbook of the Sociology of Health, Illness & Healing advances the understanding of medical sociology by identifying the most important contemporary challenges to the field and suggesting directions for future inquiry. The editors provide a blueprint for guiding research and teaching agendas for the first quarter of the 21st century. In a series of essays, this volume offers a systematic view of the critical questions that face our understanding of the role of social forces in health, illness and healing. It also provides an overall theoretical framework and asks medical sociologists to consider the implications of taking on new directions and approaches. Such issues may include the importance of multiple levels of influences, the utility of dynamic, life course approaches, the role of culture, the impact of social networks, the importance of fundamental causes approaches, and the influences of state structures and policy making.


The Sociology of Health and Illness

The Sociology of Health and Illness

Author: Sarah Nettleton

Publisher: Polity

Published: 2006-07-04

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 0745628281

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This reader brings together recent writing on health, illness and health care in contemporary society. It emphasizes the empirical nature of medical sociology and its relationship with the development of sociological theory.


An Introduction to the Sociology of Health and Illness

An Introduction to the Sociology of Health and Illness

Author: Dr Kevin White

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2002-03-26

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 1847877133

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The main purpose of this book is to demonstrate that disease is socially produced and distributed. Becoming sick and unhealthy is not the result of individual misfortune or an accident of nature. It is a consequence of the social, political and economic organization of society. In developing this thesis, the author systematically introduces students to the major sociological explanations of the role and functions of medical explanations of disease. The book situates the student securely in the literature and provides a guide to the strengths and weaknesses of the major sociological approaches. It draws out the essential features of the major sociological contributions and elucidates how an appreciation of the dynamics of class, gender, ethnicity and the sociology of knowledge challenges medical power.


Health and Modernity

Health and Modernity

Author: David V. McQueen

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2007-10-12

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 038737759X

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Pandemics, substance abuse, natural disasters, obesity, and warfare: these are not only health crises but social crises as well. Now a panel of leaders in global health explores the vital but understudied social theories behind the practice of health promotion, including cultural capital, risk and causality, systems theory, and the dynamic between individual and community.


Sociological Theories of Health and Illness

Sociological Theories of Health and Illness

Author: William C Cockerham

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-07-09

Total Pages: 500

ISBN-13: 1000069087

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Sociological Theories of Health and Illness reviews the evolution of theory in medical sociology beginning with the field’s origins in medicine and extending to its present-day standing as a major sociological subdiscipline. Sociological theory has an especially important role in the practice of medical sociology because its theories distinguish the subdiscipline from virtually all other scientific fields engaged in the study of health and illness. The focus is on contemporary theory because it applies to contemporary conditions; however, since theory in sociology is often grounded in historical precedents and classical foundations, this material is likewise included as it relates to medical sociology today. This book focuses on the most commonly used sociological theories in the study of health and illness, illustrating their utility in current examples of empirical research on a wide range of topics. The qualitative or quantitative research methods applicable to specific theories are also covered. Distinctions between macro and micro-level levels of analysis and the relevance of the agency-structure dichotomy inherent in all theories in sociology are discussed. Beginning with classical theory (Durkheim, Weber, and Marx) and the neglected founders (Gilman, Martineau, and DuBois), along with symbolic interaction (Mead, Strauss) and labeling theory (Becker), and poststructuralism and postmodernism (Foucault), coverage is extended to contemporary medical sociology. Discussion of the stress process model (Pearlin) is followed by the social construction of gender and race and intersectionality theory (Collins), health lifestyle theory (Cockerham), life course theory (Elder), fundamental cause theory (Link and Phelan), and theories of the medical profession (Freidson), medicalization and biomedicalization (Conrad, Clarke), and social capital (Bourdieu, Putnam, and Lin).


The Sociology of Health, Healing, and Illness

The Sociology of Health, Healing, and Illness

Author: Gregory L. Weiss

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-06-30

Total Pages: 778

ISBN-13: 1000857492

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With thorough coverage of inequality in health care access and practice, this leading textbook is widely acclaimed by instructors as the most comprehensive of any available. Written in an engaging and accessible style, with multiple student-friendly features, it integrates recent research in medical sociology and public health to introduce students to a wide range of issues affecting health, healing, and health care today. This new edition links information on COVID-19 into each chapter, providing students with a solid understanding of the social history of medicine; social epidemiology; social stress; health and illness behavior; the profession of medicine; nurses and allied health workers; complementary and alternative medicine; the physician-patient relationship; medical ethics; and the financing and organization of medical care. Important changes and enhancements in the eleventh edition include: Inclusion of material on COVID-19 in the main text of every chapter, with special sections at the end of each chapter exploring additional intersections of COVID-19 with chapter content. Expanded coverage of fundamental cause theory and the social determinants of health. New centralized discussions of how and why social disparities in race, class, gender, and sexual identity impact health outcomes in the United States. New “In the Field” boxed inserts on topics such as medical education and student debt, physicians’ use of medical jargon, and corporate greed. New “In Comparative Focus” boxed inserts on topics such as the 1918 influenza pandemic, infant and maternal mortality in Afghanistan, the patient care coordination process, drug prices, long-term care, and global health. A more in-depth look at both physician and nursing shortages. Expanded discussion of nurse burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic. Curricular and pedagogical changes in medical schools. Discussion of continued changes in the financing of the US health care system. A more in-depth look at quality concerns in nursing homes. Increased attention to the health care systems in Norway, Germany, Cuba, and Mexico. An updated instructor’s guide with test bank and PowerPoint slides.