The Sociology of Health and Illness

Peter Conrad is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Brandeis University. His work focuses on the sociology of health and illness, deviance, medicalization, new genetics, and the sociology of ADHD. He has published over 100 articles and a dozen books, including The Medicalization of Society (2007), and most recently, coedited Global Perspectives on ADHD (2018). He received the Lee Founder’s Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems (for lifetime contributions) and the Leo G. Reeder Award for “outstanding contributions to medical Sociology” from the Medical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association. Valerie Leiter is Professor and Chair of the Sociology Department at Simmons College. She received the Irving K. Zola Award for Emerging Scholars in Disability Studies. Much of her work focuses on children and youth with disabilities, including her book, Their Time has Come: Youth with Disabilities on the Cusp of Adulthood (Rutgers University Press). She has two current projects, one focused on individuals′ experiences with autoimmune conditions, and the other on the Food and Drug Administration′s regulation of women′s health medical devices. Her teaching addresses health and illness, disability, children and youth, and sociological methods.

• Part I The Social Production of Disease and Meanings of IllnessThe Social Nature of DiseaseReading 1 Medical Measures and the Decline of Mortality - John B. McKinlay and Sonja M. McKinlayIntroducing a Medical HeresyAimsBackground to the IssueHow Reliable Are Mortality Statistics?The Modern Decline in MortalityThe Effect of Medical Measures on Ten Infectious Diseases Which Have DeclinedConclusionsReading 2 Social Conditions as Fundamental Causes of Health Inequalities: Theory, Evidence, and Practice - Jo C. Phelan, Bruce G. Link, and Parisa TehranifarThe TheoryKey Empirical FindingsReturning to the Theory: Refinements and LimitationsImplications for Health PolicyConclusionWho Gets Sick? The Unequal Social Distribution of DiseaseReading 3 Social Class, Susceptibility, and Sickness - S. Leonard Syme and Lisa F. BerkmanReading 4 Racism and Health: Pathways and Scientific Evidence - David R. Williams and Selina A. MohammedOverview of the Nature of Racism and Its PersistenceMechanisms by Which Racism Can Affect Health and Evidence of Health EffectsConclusionReading 5 Sex, Gender, and Vulnerability - Rachel C. SnowIntroductionDefinitionsSex Differences in DiseasesAttributing Health Outcomes to Sex or GenderImplications for Research and PolicyThe Mutability of GenderConclusionReading 6 Health Inequalities in Global Context - Jason Beckfield, Sigrun Olafsdottir, and Elyas BakhtiariSocial Inequalities Generate Health GradientsData and MethodResultsDiscussionReading 7 A Case for Refocusing Upstream: The Political Economy of Illness - John B. McKinlayOur Sickening Social and Physical EnvironmentsReading 8 Social Relationships and Health - James S. House, Karl R. Landis, and Debra UmbersonReading 9 Dying Alone: The Social Production of Urban Isolation - Eric KlinenbergThe Social and Cultural Meanings of IllnessReading 10 Morality and Health: News Media Constructions of Overweight and Eating Disorders - Abigail C. Saguy and Kjerstin GruysReading 11 Like a Fish out of Water: Managing Chronic Pain in the Urban Safety Net - Sara Rubin, Nancy Burke, Meredith Van Natta, Irene Yen, and Janet K. ShimReading 12 Whose Deaths Matter?: Mortality, Advocacy, and Attention to Disease in the Mass Media - Elizabeth M. Armstrong, Daniel P. Carpenter, and Marie HojnackiThe Experience of IllnessReading 13 Electronic Support Groups, Patient-Consumers, and Medicalization: The Case of Contested Illness - Kristin K. BarkerReading 14 The Meaning of Medications: Another Look at Compliance - Peter ConradPART II THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF MEDICAL CAREThe Rise and Fall of the Dominance of MedicineReading 15 Professionalization, Monopoly, and the Structure of Medical Practice - Peter Conrad and Joseph W. SchneiderReading 16 Notes on the Decline of Midwives and the Rise of Medical Obstetricians - Richard W. Wertz and Dorothy C. WertzReading 17 The End of the Golden Age of Doctoring - John B. McKinlay and Lisa D. MarceauOther Providers In and Out of MedicineReading 18 A Caring Dilemma: Womanhood and Nursing in Historical Perspective - Susan ReverbyReading 19 SuperNurse? Troubling the Hero Discourse in COVID Times - Rochelle EinbodenReading 20 Becoming a Complementary Health Practitioner: The Construction of Alternative Medical Knowledge - Maayan RoichmanPharmaceuticalizationReading 21 From Lydia Pinkham to Queen Levitra: Direct-to-Consumer Advertising and Medicalisation - Peter Conrad and Valerie LeiterReading 22 Prescriptions and Proscriptions: Moralising Sleep Medicines - Jonathan Gabe, Catherine M. Coveney, and Simon J. WilliamsReading 23 Vaccine Refusal and Pharmaceutical Acquiescence: Parental Control and Ambivalence in Managing Children’s Health - Jennifer A. ReichFinancing Medical CareReading 24 Paying for Health Care - Thomas Bodenheimer and Kevin GrumbachReading 25 The Origins of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - Jill QuadagnoMedicine in PracticeReading 26 The Struggle Between the Voice of Medicine and the Voice of the Lifeworld - Elliot G. MishlerReading 27 Cultural Brokerage: Creating Linkages Between Voices of Lifeworld and Medicine in Cross-Cultural Clinical Settings - Ming-Cheng Miriam LoReading 28 Latina Physicians as “Essential” Workers - Glenda M. FloresReading 29 “Like Finding a Unicorn”: Healthcare Preferences Among Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual People in the United States - Alexander J. Martos, Patrick A. Wilson, Allegra R. Gordon, Marguerita Lightfoot, and Ilan H. MeyerReading 30 Social Death as Self-Fulfilling Prophecy - Stefan TimmermansReading 31 Technologies and Health Inequities - Stefan Timmermans and Rebecca KaufmanReading 32 Being-in-Dialysis: The Experience of the Machine–Body for Home Dialysis Users - Rhonda ShawReading 33 “It Just Becomes Much More Complicated”: Genetic Counselors’ Views on Genetics and Prenatal Testing - Susan MarkensPart III Contemporary Critical DebatesThe Relevance of RiskReading 34 Risk as Moral Danger: The Social and Political Functions of Risk Discourse in Public Health - Deborah LuptonReading 35 Lay Pharmacovigilance and the Dramatization of Risk: Fluoroquinolone Harm on YouTube - Kristin Kay BarkerReading 36 Risk society online: Zika virus, social media and distrust in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Andrea Laurent-Simpson and Celia C. LoReading 37 The Shifting Engines of Medicalization - Peter ConradReading 38 The Best Laid Plans?: Women’s Choices, Expectations and Experiences in Childbirth - Claudia Malacrida and Tiffany BoultonReading 39 C-Section Epidemic - Theresa MorrisPart IV Expanding Health and Health CareIllness, Medicine, and the InternetReading 40 Illness and the Internet: From Private to Public Experience - Peter Conrad, Julia Bandini, and Alexandria VasquezReading 41 Collective Self-experimentation in Patient-led Research: How Online Health Communities Foster Innovation - Joanna Kempner and John BaileyReading 42 “It’s Like Having a Physician in Your Pocket!”: A Critical Analysis of Self-Diagnosis Smartphone Apps - Deborah Lupton and Annemarie JutelPrevention, Movements, and Social ChangeReading 43 COVID-19 as Eco-Pandemic Injustice: Opportunities for Collective and Antiracist Approaches to Environmental Health - Martha Powers, Phil Brown, Grace Poudrier, Jennifer Liss Ohayon, Alissa Cordner, Cole Alder, and Marina Goreau AtlasReading 44 Politicizing Health Care - John McKnight