Medical Sociology on the Move

This book provides readers with a single source reviewing and updating the use of sociological theory in medical or health sociology.When medical sociology first appeared as a sociological specialty in the mid-20th century, much of the work was atheoretical. Over time, this situation changed dramatically and this book not only discusses the major theoretical approaches, but also identifies new directions in theory that provide explanatory models of the social processes affecting health and disease today. Medical sociology now features a robust theoretical literature and the use of theory is now a major strength of the field, as demonstrated by the chapters in this book. Three of the chapters are contributed by the original theorists Bruce Link and Jo Phelan on fundamental cause theory, Peter Conrad on medicalization, and William Cockerham on health lifestyle theory and the other chapters are all written by selected senior scholars (Kathy Charmaz, Linda Liska Belgrave, Bryan Turner, Graham Scambler, Ellen Annandale, and Bernice Pescosolido) and rising younger medical sociologists (Sigrun Olafsdottir, Alex Dumas, Sasha Scambler, Brian Hinote, Jason Wasserman, and Lijun Song) with special expertise in theory.