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Medical Power and Social Knowledge
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Medical Power and Social Knowledge

Second Edition


August 1995 | 288 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
The fully revised edition of this successful textbook provides a comprehensive introduction to medical sociology and an assessment of its significance for social theory and the social sciences. It includes a completely revised chapter on mental health and new chapters on the sociology of the body and on the relationship between health and risk in contemporary societies.

Bryan S Turner considers the ways in which different social theorists have interpreted the experience of health and disease, and the social relations and power structures involved in medical practice. He examines health as an aspect of social action and looks at the subject of health at three levels - the individual, the social and the societal. Among the perspectives analyzed are: Parsons' view of the `sick role' and the patient's relation to society; Foucault's critique of medical models of madness and sexuality; Marxist and feminist debates on the relation of health and medicine to capitalism and patriarchy; and Beck's contribution to the sociological understanding of environmental pollution and hazard in the politics of health.

 
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION
 
Medical Sociology
 
Religion and Medicine
From Sin to Sickness

 
 
PART TWO: CONCEPTS OF DISEASE AND SICKNESS
 
On Being Sick
Colin Samson
Madness and Psychiatry
 
Women's Complaints
Patriarchy and Illness

 
 
Aging, Dying and Death
 
PART THREE: SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF MEDICAL POWER
 
Professions, Knowledge and Power
 
Medical Bureaucracies
The Hospital, the Clinic and Modern Society

 
 
Capitalism, Class and Illness
 
Comparative Health Systems
The Globalization of Medical Power

 
 
PART FOUR: CONCLUSION
 
The Regulation of Bodies
 
Risk Society and the New Regime of Disease
 
The Expanding Field of the Sociology of the Body

`Turner's intelligible and readable style and his broad grasp of social theory and history make this volume an interesting blend of historical particularities and specific cross-national examples. It is a work that is both entertaining, informative and accessible to sociologists and students' - Medical Sociology News

`Symbolises the maturation of the sociology of health and illness.... In sum, both students and scholars alike would profit from thinking through the issues, criticisms and directions raised in this book for it will force them to argue from a more historically sensitive and theoretically sound position. The book is at its best in being challenging and thought provoking. Whether or not readers always agree with the argument or criticism, they are required to intellectually engage and question their own work. For these reasons, the book will initiate fruitful discourse' - Sociology

Reviews of the first edition:

`Bryan Turner has built on his previous work on the sociology of the body to expand, redefine, and evaluate critically medical sociology, producing a broad interdisciplinary synthesis of approaches to health, illness and the medical professions.... the comprehensiveness, originality and critical force of this survey of medical sociology are admirable' - American Journal of Sociology

`This is a superb textbook. The material on history and the interactional aspects of illness is outstanding... because of its logic and clarity... should be required reading for all medical schools' - The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease

`This book can be recommended as the best brief introduction to medical sociology' - Medical History


would have liked the book to engage more deeply with current health issues

Dr Mei Trueba
Health , Brighton and Sussex Medical School
March 30, 2016

An excellent, illuminating and thorough piece by Prof. Turner which is a must for courses on sociology of medicine, health and/or body.

Dr BURAK OZCETIN
Faculty of Communication, Akdeniz University
January 19, 2015

A valuable text providing alternative perspectives on medical knowledge; useful for students studying any area of healthcare.

Dr Emily Taylor
Department of Clinical Psychology, Edinburgh University
March 16, 2012

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