Functionalism and after? Theory and Developments in Social Science Applied to the Health Field

1974 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald Frankenberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Social Integration ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Class Conflict ◽  
Theoretical Function ◽  
The Social ◽  
Critical Understanding ◽  
Health Field

It is suggested that sociology could have a totalizing theoretical function in relation to medicine. Marx in his Capital put forward a theory of social integration in which incidentally illness is seen as arising out of social conditions and reflecting back on them. Sigerist, following this lead, sees the roles of physicians and the sick in an historical context, but his analysis is marred by an inversion of Marx's man-centered view. George Bernard Shaw's experience in local government led him to a critical understanding. Parsons and Freidson develop Sigerist's ideas but outside their historical context. It is argued that empirical work in the field, while useful, suffers from the inadequacy of attempts to apply sociologic theory to medicine. This arises out of the social position of sociologists, their elitist view of administration, and their illusory desire to influence doctors. The solution is seen in identification with patients and an honest acceptance of class conflict and contradiction. It is suggested that in this respect Mao Tse-tung might be seen as a successful medical sociologist. A parallel is drawn with problems of realism and naturalism in art.

Social Environments of Pervasive Incarceration: Lessons from Australia’s Top End

2021 ◽  
pp. 199-221
Author(s):  
Bruce Western ◽  
Catherine Sirois
Keyword(s):  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Criminal Justice Policy ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Material Hardship ◽  
The Social ◽  
Penal Institutions

U.S. mass incarceration is characterized by pervasive imprisonment among black men with little schooling that is often viewed as the product of punitive criminal justice policy. This chapter argues that pervasive incarceration also arises under a specific set of social conditions that make police contact and detention overwhelmingly likely. This work explores the social conditions of pervasive incarceration in a significantly less punitive policy context, in Australia’s Northern Territory where social inequality is acute and incarceration is woven into everyday life. Interviews and field observation in this region show that pervasive indigenous incarceration emerges in a historical context of racial inequality marked by extreme material hardship, violent family conflict and alcohol abuse. Where violence is coupled to poverty, penal institutions respond expansively to myriad social problems — including serious violence.

scholarly journals Editor's Introduction to 40th Anniversary Issue: History and the Social Sciences: Past Imperfect; Future Promising

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 525-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne EC McCants
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Annual Conference ◽  
Science History ◽  
Social Science History ◽  
The Social ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Interdisciplinary Exchange

It has been almost 40 years since Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie published an English translation of his (at the time) deeply unsettling essay, “Motionless History,” in the second issue of Social Science History (SSH, Winter 1977). For many historians, whose livelihoods depended on narrating the “march of history,” his claim that long periods of history were characterized by a distinct absence of change—his example was Europe from late antiquity up to the early eighteenth century—was nothing short of heretical. The newly established SSH was, however, an entirely logical place from which to launch this fusillade against the disciplinary norms of the Anglo-American historical profession, as the journal was the product of a contra-establishment project, the Social Science History Association (SSHA). Founded in 1974 and hosting its first annual conference in Philadelphia in the fall of 1976, the SSHA emerged out of the more general social and political ferment of that period. Its organizers had the specific intention to disrupt (to use our word and not theirs) what they thought were the rigid practices and limited vision of the then American Historical Association. In so doing they hoped to make space for a new kind of historical enquiry that had much to learn from the social sciences, and hoped to teach them something in return. They were joined in that enthusiastic moment by historically minded rebels from the American Sociological Association, as well as small numbers of anthropologists, demographers, economists, geographers, and political scientists who were all eager to incorporate both historical context and a theoretical appreciation of contingency into their work. In the intervening years since that hopeful beginning, many have argued that the anticipated interdisciplinary exchange failed in one way or another. But let me not get ahead of myself.

Value judgments in social science

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom L. Beauchamp
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Social Scientist ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Scientific Practices ◽  
Scientific Theories ◽  
Value Judgments ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Political Values ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact

Leading theorists in the social sciences have insisted that value judgments should be strictly separated from scientific judgments, which should be value-free. Yet these same thinkers recognize that social scientists are often committed to values in carrying out their work and may be motivated by moral goals of removing or remedying social conditions. From this perspective, scientific conclusions (one sort of fact) and moral commitments (one sort of value) are intertwined in scientific practices, and the question arises whether a social scientist qua scientist makes value judgments or only makes such judgments in a nonscientific capacity. Related questions concern the role played by moral, social, and political values in the pursuit of scientific knowledge and the impact of these values on scientific theories and methods.

Control and Responsibility: Moral and Religious Issues in Lay Health Accounts

1994 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 414-437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Mullen
Keyword(s):  
Medical Sociology ◽  
Social Activism ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Religious Issues ◽  
The Social ◽  
Health And Illness ◽  
Health Accounts ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Health Field

In sociological work of an empirical nature the concept of control tends to have a taken-for-granted quality. Similarly in the field of medical sociology when control is mentioned in relation to health and illness it is often presented in a unidimensional manner. This article analyses the relationship between control and responsibility for health in the lay accounts of male Glaswegians. Activist and fatalist dimensions were found in their thinking. However, activist thinking was seen to have three strands: personal activism, social activism, and religious activism. Further, fatalistic thinking was not about passive submission but rather the belief that control lay outwith the person in the realm of the social, natural or supernatural worlds. These findings demonstrate the subtle ways in which people relate to issues of control and responsibility in the health realm – a subtlety which is not fully brought out either in the theoretical or empirical work of social scientists researching in the health field.

Problems of Theory and Measurement

1989 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Bulmer
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Social Indicators ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Social Characteristics ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Social Statistics

Social indicators have not fulfilled their promise, or at least have not lived up to the expectations held of them in the late 1950s and 1960s. Despite the continued growth of social statistics, produced both by governments and other organisations, the aim of producing precise, concise and evaluatively neutral measures of the state of society and of change in society has apparently eluded some of the best minds of the social science and governmental statistics communities. Whereas a wide range of economic indicators and data are readily available, if not without their problems (cf. Johnson, 1988), and integrated into the concepts of economic theory, standard measures of crime, health, well-being, education and many other social characteristics have proven much more difficult to construct and establish as standard yardsticks of social conditions. This note considers some of the reasons for these difficulties. It relates specifically to the aspiration to construct social indicators, not to social statistics more generally (as reviewed in, for example, Carley, 1981).

Social Representations and Health Psychology

2002 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 559-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hélène Joffe
Keyword(s):  
Health Psychology ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Human Thought ◽  
The Social ◽  
Health And Illness ◽  
Health Field ◽  
Specific Contribution

The author examines the specific contribution that social representations research has made to health psychology. In particular, the approach highlights the symbolic, emotive and social aspects of how lay people make meaning of facets of health and illness, and emphasizes the importance of the evolution of these meanings. Empirical work on health and illness is used to cast light on the specific workings of social representations and on the enrichment of the health field offered by this naturalistic perspective. Distinctions are drawn between the social representations approach and other social constructionist approaches in the health field. In addition, the differentiation between social representations and more mainstream approaches to health issues is examined. Primarily, the social representations approach eschews the notion of human thought as analogous to information processing, with the attendant individualist, cognitivist and rationalist assumptions, and recognizes the importance of non-verbal material in the study of the human psyche.

scholarly journals Front Antagonism Towards Social and Political Integration Perspectives on the Social Science of Prophetic

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Musafir Pababbari
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Social Integration ◽  
Political Integration ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
Interesting Problem ◽  
Social Legitimacy ◽  
Intended Purpose ◽  
The Social

This research is talking about conflict antagonism which is a social phenomenon that often confuses sociologists. It is not an interesting problem, but because of the same phenomenon discussed, but the results are always the opposite. Especially in seeing the nature of conflicts that occur in society. Conflict is usually dysfunctional in society but at the same time becomes structural. This study uses the conflict method proposed by Lewis Coser to discuss societies that have a pattern of social integration of processes that address structural conflicts so that dynamic societies seek a form of balance. The results showed that the conflict that occurred to achieve the intended purpose was social support. Social legitimacy formed by press groups will produce horizontal conflicts and vice versa if it is legally agreed by consensus then it will become an integration tool. So far, many ideas have been resolved in conflict resolution for integration purposes. This research is reviewed from the perspective of prophetic social science, one of the important ideas of Kuntowijoyo. For him, social science should not be complacent in trying to explain or understand reality, but social science must also carry the task of transformation towards ideals that are idealized by society. Three basic values as the basis of prophetic social science, namely: humanization, liberation, and transcendence.يتحدث هذا البحث عن عداوة الصراع وهي ظاهرة اجتماعية غالبًا ما تربك علماء الاجتماع. ليس بسبب مشكلة مثيرة للاهتمام، ولكن بسبب نفس الظاهرة التي نوقشت، لكن النتائج دائمًا ما تكون عكس ذلك. خاصة في رؤية طبيعة الصراعات التي تحدث في المجتمع .عادة ما يكون الصراع غير فعال في المجتمع ولكن في نفس الوقت يصبح هيكلية .تستخدم هذه الدراسة طريقة الصراع التي اقترحها لويس كوسر لمناقشة المجتمعات التي لديها نمط من التكامل الاجتماعي للعمليات التي تعالج الصراعات الهيكلية، بحيث تسعى المجتمعات الديناميكية إلى شكل من أشكال التوازن .أظهرت النتائج أن الصراع الذي حدث لتحقيق الغرض المقصود كان الدعم الاجتماعي .ستؤدي الشرعية الاجتماعية التي تشكلها المجموعات الصحفية إلى صراع أفقي والعكس صحيح إذا تمت الموافقة عليها قانونًا بتوافق الآراء، فسوف تصبح أداة تكام . حتى الآن، تم حل العديد من الأفكار في حل النزاعات لأغراض التكامل. تتم مراجعة هذا البحث من منظور العلوم الاجتماعية النبوية، وهي واحدة من أفكار Kuntowijoyo الهامة .بالنسبة له، لا ينبغي أن يكون العلم الاجتماعي مقتصرا في محاولة تفسير الواقع أو فهمه، ولكن يجب أن يحمل العلم الاجتماعي أيضًا مهمة التحول نحو المثل العليا التي يعتبرها المجتمع مثالية. هناك ثلاث قيم أساسية كأساس لعلم الاجتماع النبوي، وهي الإنسانية والتحرير والتعالي.Penelitian ini berbicara tentang antagonisme konflik yang merupakan fenomena sosial yang sering membingungkan sosiolog. Bukan karena masalah yang menarik, tetapi karena fenomena yang sama yang dibahas, tetapi hasilnya selalu berlawanan. Terutama dalam melihat sifat-sifat konflik yang terjadi di masyarakat. Konflik biasanya disfungsional dalam masyarakat tetapi pada saat yang sama menjadi struktural. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode konflik yang diusulkan oleh Lewis Coser untuk membahas masyarakat yang memiliki pola integrasi sosial dari proses yang mengatasi konflik struktural, sehingga masyarakat yang dinamis mencari bentuk keseimbangan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa konflik yang terjadi untuk mencapai tujuan yang dimaksud adalah dukungan sosial. Legitimasi sosial yang dibentuk oleh kelompok pers akan menghasilkan konflik horizontal dan sebaliknya jika disetujui secara sah melalui konsensus maka itu akan menjadi alat integrasi. Sejauh ini, banyak ide telah diselesaikan dalam resolusi konflik untuk tujuan integrasi. Penelitian ini diulas dari perspektif Ilmu sosial profetik, salah satu ide penting dari Kuntowijoyo. Baginya, ilmu sosial tidak boleh berpuas diri dalam mencoba menjelaskan atau memahami realitas, tetapi ilmu sosial juga harus membawa tugas transformasi menuju cita-cita yang diidealkan oleh masyarakat. Tiga nilai dasar sebagai dasar ilmu sosial profetik, yaitu: humanisasi, pembebasan, dan transendensi. 

scholarly journals Roads Less Taken

2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (10) ◽  
pp. 1275-1310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pearl A. Dykstra ◽  
Gunhild O. Hagestad
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Social Integration ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Over Time

This article provides the rationale for doing research on childlessness and parenthood in late life. Childless older adults have been rendered invisible in the social scientific literature. A central goal of this issue is to make them visible and to expose unstated assumptions about normal adult life. Parenthood emerges as a key organizer of the life course and a major factor in social integration. Because the childless tend to be conceptualized as “the other,” focusing on them teaches lessons about the dangers of dichotomous thinking, that is, overlooking diversity and assuming deficiency. Studying older adults without children reveals the necessity of considering life pathways over time and of putting lives in a historical context.

Where Mayos Meet Mestizos: A Model for the Social Structure of Culture Contact

1969 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Crumrine ◽  
Lynne Crumrine
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Social Integration ◽  
Culture Change ◽  
Culture Contact ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Sufficient Condition ◽  
The Social ◽  
Contact Situation

Even though a great deal has been written about culture change and the conditions and social structure of culture contact, many anthropologists are dissatisfied concerning the progress in culture change studies, as has been recently noted by Robert B. Taylor. It is his fundamental question - "Why do participants of given cultures react as they do to customs which are new to them?" - that we wish to consider here. We hypothesize that part of the reaction relates to the type of social conditions existing between or among the societies in contact. Types of social interaction affect information transference and acceptance or rejection of innovation. In other words, the social structure of culture contact is of utmost importance in the consideration of this question. Whether Mayo Indians of Sonora, Mexico accept innovations from mestizo society depends in part upon the social structure forming opportunities for Mayos to meet mestizos. Adequate social integration forms a necessary, though perhaps not sufficient condition for the acceptance of outside innovation. Obviously, the structure of Mayo culture is also of great importance in the evaluation of the usefulness and acceptability of the innovation. However, here we will discuss only the character of the necessary condition: social integration within the contact situation.

Why Do We “Skip to My Lou,” Anyway? Teaching Play Party Songs in Historical Context

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 4-10
Author(s):  
Nancy L. Glen
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Classroom Teacher ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
General Music ◽  
Music Curriculum ◽  
Interdisciplinary Teaching ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Music Specialist

This article focuses on teaching play party songs in a general music curriculum, using their authentic form and historical context. The history of play party songs is discussed, as well as the social conditions in America during the time they were used in the late 19th to mid-20th century. Descriptions of the songs include variations in lyrics and movements, with three examples of popular play party songs discussed in detail. Tips for teachers who wish to teach play party songs in their original historical context are offered, and a case is made for using them as a component of interdisciplinary teaching between the music specialist and the classroom teacher. At the end of the article, a sample list of popular play party songs are presented, as well as a list of resources to support the music specialist in learning more about these songs.

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