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Upper Level
Credits: 4
Term(s) Offered (Subject to Change) : Jan.
Explore the broad area of sociological inquiry known as the sociology of medicine. Explore the relationship between health and illness and the social factors that may affect these, and apply theories and models of society to issues of health and illness. Understand that medicine, as a body of professional (and lay) knowledge, is itself a social institution, and that our understanding of health and illness is socially constructed. Explore institutions such as hospitals, clinics, solo practices, and roles of physicians, midwives, faith healers, and patients through which we encounter medicine. Consider how health care is organized and delivered in the USA and in other capitalist, socialist and emerging societies. Read papers written for medical field peers rather than for students, and see the hurly burly and relative ambiguity and tentativeness of research findings in contrast to the clear, unequivocal statements often cast in textbooks.
Option: This course is also available online (Web) in some terms (283164).
