Medical Power and Social Knowledge Book

In this new textbook, Professor Bryan Turner describes and contributes to the sociological analysis of medicine. He provides an overview of the debates through which the sociology of medicine has developed and connects major issues in health and disease to central problems in social theory.In particular, Turner examines health as an aspect of social action, and looks at the problem of health at three levels -- the individual, the social and the societal. He also analyses: Parsons' view of the `sick role' and the patients relation to society; Foucault's critique of medical models of madness and sexuality; and Marxist and feminist debates on the relation of health and medicine to capitalism and patriarchy.Contemporary sociological discussions of the role of professionalization in health care and the globalization of modern medicine are also considered. Turner concludes this study with a critical examination of health care in capitalist and socialist societies.Read More