Sociological theory and medical sociology /

Scambler has diagnosed the condition of British medical sociology as theoretically impoverished and concerned with narrow empirical studies or social policy questions defined by the crisis-driven National Health Service. He has therefore commissioned nine essays that bring the area of health, disease, and medicine within the broad perspectives of mainstream sociological theory. Specifically, the work of Marx, Durkheim, Foucault, Habermas, Weber, Goffman, and Parsons are mined for concepts or presented in exegetical summaries. Each theorist is the focus of a specific essay. For example, David Blaine employs Marx's idea of labor power as commodity in reexamining the relationship between rising living standards and falling British mortality rates, 1890-1920. Unfortunately, aside from the exegesis of important texts, many of the essays offer narrow studies with classical theory ``tacked-on.'' Three contributions, however, redeem this collection with fresh applications of theory. A discussion of Durkhemian social realism and illness, Uta Gerhardt's comprehensive and balanced appreciation of Parsonian functionalism, and Simon Williams's solid presentation of Goffman, dramaturgy, stigma, and illness all explore important theoretical questions and apply these insights to the specialized topics in the sociology of medicine. Upper-division undergraduates and above.-J.H. Rubin, Saint Joseph College