The Early Sociology Of Health And Illness

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.

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.

Strohschein/Weitz' The Sociology of Health, Illness, and Health Care in Canada: A Critical Approach, first Canadian edition is the first in its field to take a critical approach, challenging students to use their 'sociological imagination' to question previously taken-for-granted aspects about health, illness, and health care. Comprehensive, current, and thoroughly Canadian, the authors consistently encourage students to acquire for themselves the tools needed to see the world around them in a new way. As one of the largest fields in the discipline, the sociology of health and illness is vibrant, theoretically-rich and diverse. As such, The Sociology of Health, Illness, and Healthcare in Canada: A Critical Approach places nearly equal balance of the three main areas in the field: the social patterning of health and illness, the social construction of health and illness, and the social organization of health care. It introduces students not only to structural functionalism, conflict theory and symbolic interactionism, but also to more recent theories such as Foucaultian theory, postmodernism, Bourdiesian theory and sociology of the body. The text places considerable effort into evaluating and interpreting the most current available research findings; Canadian statistics; and trends in health, creating a coherent 'story' that will engage students and stimulate active learning and independent thinking. The text's authors contextualize the sociology of health, illness, and healthcare in Canada's political, historical, and cultural landscape. At the same time, the authors examine the lessons to be learned by contrasting the Canadian situation with what occurs in the United States and other countries.