Medical sociology ... "food for thought" c/o POHG

I replied to the message copied below by Alex Scott-Samuel on the Politics of Health Group Mail List. Following up with respondents, I have copied Alex's reply and others:

----- Forwarded message -----

From: Alex Scott-Samuel <alexscottsamuel AT gmail.com>

To: "pohg AT jiscmail.ac.uk" <pohg AT jiscmail.ac.uk>

Sent: Saturday, 26 November 2022 at 13:05:25 GMT

Subject: [POHG] Illich

Just came across this from 19 years ago: still offers food for thought

 

[The graphic file downloaded should be legible. PJ]
 

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On 26 Nov 2022, at 17:46, peter jones <h2cmng AT yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

Thanks Alex,

This is very useful - short but very sweet and as you say food for thought - especially in our (ongoing) consumptogenic age.

You've prompted a draft blog-post I will add an acknowledgement and link to POHG.

I've no evidence, that is reading, so what follows are thoughts ... musings ... but I keep wondering: what has happened to 'medical sociology'?

Is medical (health) sociology - history as a discipline?

Is there ongoing development - has the discipline morphed into others?

Is there a case to stress not only public health, but public MENTAL health? As I often do. Am I over-reacting?

In information technology there is talk of functionality being placed in wrappers. Has sociology been subsumed - it's there - but underneath - policy rhetoric (integrated, person-centred, holistic care)?

Who are the leading current figures - and recent equivalents of -

"Aaron Antonovsky (19 December 1923 – 7 July 1994) was an Israeli American sociologist and academic whose work concerned the relationship between stress, health and well-being (salutogenesis)."

Canguilhem

Virchow ...?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_sociology

Should I take heart by the arrival of the SDGs, and the recognition of not only the social determinants of health, but political and commercial too and others..?

I keep writing regarding the potential and utility of Hodges' model:

https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/search?q=sociology

Thanks again,

Peter
====

----- Forwarded message -----

From: Alex Scott-Samuel <alexscottsamuel AT gmail.com>

Cc: "pohg AT jiscmail.ac.uk" <pohg AT jiscmail.ac.uk>

Sent: Saturday, 26 November 2022 at 18:41:10 GMT

Subject: Re: [POHG] Illich - wither et al. ?

Interesting questions Peter. I sense that the answers are out there but not necessarily concentrated in this list. Although I retired from academic public health almost 7 years ago, I have no reason to think that what is now called the sociology of health and illness is not as strong as ever. The kind of places I would look are on the one hand journals such as Sociology of Health and Illness, Social Science & Medicine and Critical Public Health and on the other, popular outlets such as Laurie Taylor's Radio 4 programme Thinking Allowed. 

As far as I know the Medical Sociology Group of the British Sociological Association still exists and holds regular conferences. There has for many years been a Journal of Public Mental Health though it's a while since I've looked at it

Antonovsky's ideas were popular in the health promotion field as well as in academic social science. I remember that a number of people in the WHO Healthy Cities movement were interested in salutogenesis. I've not thought about it for many years but I was on a research group with Antonovsky in the mid 80s when he was developing his Sense of Coherence construct. I  I have to say that despite the attractiveness of problematising health rather than sickness, I never thought the sense of coherence was adequately or well theorised. I do recall seeing quite a few papers from people who rushed out to measure the coherence of people in various situations using the tool which Antonovsky produced. I don't know whether this kind of work continues nor whether it developed

All the best, Alex

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----- Forwarded message -----

From: Alderson, Priscilla <p.alderson AT ucl.ac.uk>

Sent: Saturday, 26 November 2022 at 18:55:08 GMT

Subject: Re: [POHG] Illich - wither et al. ?

Dear Peter,

My book Critical Realism for Health and Illness Research: A Practical Introduction (Policy Press 2021) reviews the main traditions in medical sociology and critically updates sociology research that is relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. The medical sociologists are the largest subgroup among all UK sociologists.

best wishes

Priscilla

Priscilla Alderson PhD,  Professor Emerita,  

Social Research Institute, University College London,
18 Woburn Square, London WC1H ONR p.alderson AT ucl.ac.uk     

http://iris.ucl.ac.uk/iris/browse/profile?upi=DPALD60  

   

Alderson P. 2021 Critical Realism for Health and Illness Research. Policy Press. 

Winner of the IACR Cheryl Frank award 2022.

Children’s consent to heart surgery research website:  

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/departments-and-centres/centres/social-science-research-unit/consent-and-shared-decision-making-healthcare/heart-surgery

Alderson, P. and Morgan, J. 2022 Realist by inclination, childhood studies, dialectic and bodily concerns: an interview. Journal of Critical Realism, 10.1080/14767430.2022.2068261
Alderson P, Morrow V. 2020 The Ethics of Research with Children and Young People: A Practical Handbook. SAGE.

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----- Forwarded message -----

From: Eileen O'Keefe <e.okeefe57 AT gmail.com>

To: Alex Scott-samuel <alexscottsamuel AT gmail.com>;

Cc: Professor Lesley Doyal <l.doyal AT bristol.ac.uk>

Sent: Sunday, 27 November 2022 at 19:52:16 GMT

Subject: Lesley Doyal

Dear Peter and Alex

 

Lesley Doyal set the agenda simultaneously with Illich with her Political Economy of Health. She continues to lead the pack re socially produced global inequities in health, eg her Living with HIV and Dying with AID: diversity, inequality and human rights in the global pandemic. Routledge Global Health Series. 2013.

Cheers

Eileen O’Keefe

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<->

By way of background:

I've always been impressed (in awe of) and reassured by 'medical sociology', the pioneers (as above), as a discipline, and in terms of sociology's explanatory potential.

Another - not so much an 'explanation' but an avenue to explore, has long been the continuum of care (yes, just one initially?). This spans the need for compassion, empathy, rapport, allied with the importance of hands - in nursing, medicine, surgery ... their being steady, vision true with rapid, safe, reliable, effective judgement and decision-making. In short, the need for humanistic and mechanistic synergy. Finding, and taking up Hodges' model perhaps this can account for the idea of holistic bandwidth(?).

It is an exaggeration surely, but it feels like I made two simultaneous connections in first reading psychology and philosophy. These are mind - body, and the way that many in society are 'remote' from science (knowledge), for a variety of reasons. Sociology can help account for those reasons.

Seeing (literally) the potential of visualization (as posted on W2tQ and in papers) in the 1970s, in 1990s research programs were dedicated to facilitate the development and application of visualization in the humanities. Visualization should not just be the preserve of high energy physics, bio-science and proteomics ... (although the attraction to what is 'quantifiable' is understandable). This is the question that drives this effort (I think!).

So the 'humanities' still have a requirement in information systems, informatics and literacy terms, and Hodges' model can, I believe, offer a way forward.

The replies above are much appreciated and I will follow them up.