SAM PORTER is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at The Queen's University Belfast.

• IntroductionPART 1: GETTING TO THE ROOTSStructural Functionalism and Role TheoryMarxism and the Political Economy of HealthWeber and Professional ClosurePART 2: GETTING TO THE ACTIONSymbolic Interactionism, Labelling and StigmaPhenomenology and EthnomethodologyPART 3: BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHERCritical Theory and Communicative ActionStructuration Theory and Critical RealismPART 4: TAKING IT ALL APARTFeminisms, Caring and Women's KnowledgePostmodernism and Foucault.

SAM PORTER is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at The Queen's University Belfast.

• IntroductionPART 1: GETTING TO THE ROOTSStructural Functionalism and Role TheoryMarxism and the Political Economy of HealthWeber and Professional ClosurePART 2: GETTING TO THE ACTIONSymbolic Interactionism, Labelling and StigmaPhenomenology and EthnomethodologyPART 3: BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHERCritical Theory and Communicative ActionStructuration Theory and Critical RealismPART 4: TAKING IT ALL APARTFeminisms, Caring and Women's KnowledgePostmodernism and Foucault.