S207

2 January 2007
Week 1

These notes are incomplete.

Janet Shim

Final Paper
 theoretical problem or substantive topic. exercise in which we give thoughts about several
different theories or theoretical approaches.
 theoretical issue: theories about the role of health professions
 or substantive topic

What is theory?
 theory as tool to think with, to look at the world, lens through which we interpret the world.
systematized way of interpreting a world that would otherwise look like a mass of random
data
 attempt to explain why things are the way they are
 C. Wright Mills – theory taking place in every interaction on day-to-day basis
 in conversation w/ Parsons, who had idea that he could come up w/ theory to explain the
entire social system. in some ways, Mills was advocating populist sociology, and it really
argued that theorizing was not the domain of the expert, but of the everyday woman and
man. to understand how one’s individual biography accumulated and accrued and
contributed to the history of a society. quality of mind that helps people to use info /
reason to achieve summation of what is going on in the world and what is happening to
them in that world. way society working = bidirectional; we’re not just placed in
institutions, social forces don’t just have a life of their own irrespective of what we as
individuals do.
 sociological theorizing doesn’t need to be theorizing with a capital T; unsystematize it.
 theories and concepts don’t merely describe “what is,” but “why it is”

What is sociological theory?

 structural functionalism vs. conflict theories – more general orientations of how the world
works, as opposed to tight, well-held together theories.
 these orientations shaped the larger discipline of medical sociology
 Parsons came out of a particular historical context – structural functionalism took off in
post-WWII era

(in reading these articles, distinguish between whether the author was trying to be
descriptive and prescriptive)

 functionalism – social order. influenced by bio theories re: homeostasis, equilibrium

 conflict theories –
 Marx never really took hold in the US. a lot of the social theorists were of the variety
that eventually gave rise to functionalism, thinking of society as a social organism
(Industrial Revolution metaphor, with cogs and parts)
sociology of medicine
 Conrad’s definitions
 identity crises that medical sociologists have – applied vs. academic
 sociologists of medicine take an outsider’s stance, whether or not you’re outside of medicine,
it almost doesn’t matter institutionally where you’re located – it’s more an intellectual
position you take. are you asking why that’s being defined the way it’s being defined? how
far along in the thought process are you willing to take for granted? (reword). more of an
orientational/intellectual stance.
 historically relevant ex: compliance. originally, social scientists in health/med were
asked to find out how to maximize compliance w/ med advice. a sociologist in medicine
might accept that as a perfunctory goal and figure out how to improve compliance. a
sociologist of medicine would ask how do we define compliance? why is it a worthy
goal? what you’re accepting is radically different.
 in Freidson’s account, in order to be a sociologist, he had to maintain an actual location
and intellectual orientation outside of medicine
 medical sociology coming about through a series of phases
 sociology of medicine distinguished from medical sociology and sociology of health and
illness

what is distinctive about a sociological approach to health and medicine?

 contextualizing medicine

how did medical sociology come about as a subdiscipline?

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 19 century – beginnings of social medicine, social hygiene, public health. some of medical
sociology’s roots came out of that kind of tradition
 WWII – med soc was not a subdiscipline, but what was happening eventually coalesced into
med soc.
 health care financing – people outside sociology began seeing social science as being of use

what came out of the Industrial Revolution and its aftermath.. is a new social form
emerging? or are we just shifting to another kind of capitalist system? lot of debate
about what kind of society we’re in now. postmodern? high modernity?