Systems Theory and the Sociology of Health and Illness

Systems Theory and the Sociology of Health and Illness PDF

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.

The Palgrave Handbook of Social Theory in Health, Illness and Medicine

The Palgrave Handbook of Social Theory in Health, Illness and Medicine PDF

Author: F. Collyer

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-02-12

Total Pages: 710

ISBN-13: 113735562X

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This wide-reaching handbook offers a new perspective on the sociology of health, illness and medicine by stressing the importance of social theory. Examining a range of classic and contemporary female and male theorists from across the globe, it explores various issues including chronic illness, counselling and the rising problems of obesity.

Systems Theory and the Sociology of Health and Illness

Systems Theory and the Sociology of Health and Illness PDF

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.

An Introduction to the Sociology of Health and Illness

An Introduction to the Sociology of Health and Illness PDF

Author: Kevin White

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2002-05-24

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9780761964001

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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.

Contemporary Theorists for Medical Sociology

Contemporary Theorists for Medical Sociology PDF

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.

The Sociology of Health and Illness

The Sociology of Health and Illness PDF

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.

Handbook of the Sociology of Health, Illness, and Healing

Handbook of the Sociology of Health, Illness, and Healing PDF

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.

Sociological Theory and Medical Sociology

Sociological Theory and Medical Sociology PDF

Author: Graham Scambler

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2022-05-24

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 1000577597

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Originally published in 1987, this book builds bridges between medical sociology and mainstream theory. It does so by demonstrating in new and important ways how selected theories of major thinkers like Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Freud, Parsons, Goffman, Foucault, Habermas and Offe stand to inform, and in turn be informed by the often highly focused and empirical studies of health, disease and health care found in contemporary medical sociology. The topics covered include doctor-patient interaction and the formation of health policy.

The Sociology of Health, Illness, and Health Care

The Sociology of Health, Illness, and Health Care PDF

Author: Rose Weitz

Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing Company

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 506

ISBN-13:

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Traditionally, medical sociology texts have been written from a medical perspective, focusing primarily on health issues as they have been defined by doctors, and often reading much like health education textbooks. Weitz, instead, adopts a critical perspective, sometimes challenging medical perspectives, sometimes raising broader issues beyond those of interest to the medical world. This perspective, which is more thoroughly sociological, is now more common among instructors than the older medical perspective.

The Sociology of Healthcare

The Sociology of Healthcare PDF

Author: Alan Clarke

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-09-13

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 1317864530

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The Sociology of Healthcare, Second Edition explores the impact of current social changes on health, illness and healthcare, and provides an overview of the fundamental concerns in these areas. This new edition features a brand new chapter entitled End of Life which will help health and social care workers to respond with confidence to one of the most difficult and challenging areas of care. The End of Life chapter includes information on changing attitudes to death, theories of death and dying, and palliative care. All chapters have been thoroughly updated to address diversity issues such as gender, ethnicity and disability. In addition, expanded and updated chapters include Childhood and Adolescence and Health Inequalities. The text is further enhanced through the use of case studies that relate theory to professional practice, and discussion questions to aid understanding. Links to websites direct the reader to further information on health, social wellbeing and government policies. This book is essential reading for all students of healthcare including nursing, medicine, midwifery and health studies and for those studying healthcare as part of sociology, social care and social policy degrees. In an age when health policy follows an individualist model of personal responsibility this book by Alan Clarke demonstrates with a vast array of evidence, just how much there is such a thing as society. An excellent overall book.Dr. Stephen Cowden, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, Coventry University

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