UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH SCIENCES
SOCIAL THEORY AND HEALTH
FALL TERM 2010-11
COURSE DIRECTOR: Peggy McDonough
OFFICE:
Room 584, 155 College Street
peggy.mcdonough@utoronto.ca
SEMINAR:
Wednesday 2:00-4:00
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course is an introduction to key theoretical contributions of sociology to accounts of health and
illness. Emphasis will be on a critical analysis of competing discourses on health, including those based
on structural functionalism, interpretive perspectives, neo-Marxism, social constructionism, critical race
theory, feminist perspectives, Foucauldian perspectives, Pierre Bourdieu’s work, sociology of the body,
and sociology of emotions. The focus of discussion will be core concepts of the sociology of health arising
from theoretical interpretations of what it means to be healthy or ill in Western industrialized nations.
Concepts include, but are not limited to, the sick role, labelling, lay health beliefs, the experience of
illness, social causation of disease, medical social control, medicalization, surveillance medicine, risk,
discipline and the body, the social construction of medical knowledge, habitus, capital, and body projects.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
The course aims to:
1. provide the student with a basic and critical understanding of major sociological theories as they apply
to health and illness; and
2. expose the student to a range of substantive research areas, core concepts and key debates in the
sociology of health.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
The weekly discussions of ideas about health and illness are organized according to their temporal
emergence in the sociology of health, but the enduring character of various accounts over time is as
evident as the differences (and similarities) among them. With a focus on critical analysis of competing
discourses, we will ask the following of accounts of health and illness:
1. How are health and illness conceptualized?
2. What are the underlying (implicit or explicit) assumptions about the relationship between
health/illness and the social world?
3. What are the strengths and weakness of such assumptions?
4. What are the similarities and differences across accounts?
5. What do these accounts imply for social change?
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Required Reading Material:
Required and additional readings for each session are listed in this outline. Copies of the required
readings are posted on Blackboard with the exception of the required text for the Nov. 24 class on
sociology of emotions:
Hochschild, Arlie. 2003. The Managed Heart: The Commercialization of Human Feeling. Berkeley, CA:
University of California Press.
Evaluation:
1. Weekly Electronic Notes (20%)
☺To facilitate collective learning, you will circulate reading notes (no longer than a single-spaced page in
length) to the class by e-mail. In terms of format, one suggestion is to begin with a quote that you think
typifies a core or related issue(s) or concept(s) from that week's readings. These notes are due by 5:00
p.m. on the Tuesday before the seminar. You are encouraged to read and respond to each other's
reports before and after the week's meeting.
2. Short Papers (30%)
☺Three short papers (4-5 pages double-spaced maximum, one-inch margins, 12-point font size)
where you will be asked, for each paper, to pick a concept covered in a set of required readings for a
week and use the readings to outline/discuss your understanding of the concept, including the questions
you’re left with. The papers are due the Wednesday following class discussion of the reading series you
choose. A first paper must be handed in by October 20 (in compliance with SGS regulations stipulating
that students must have knowledge of at least 10% of their course grade before the course drop deadline
of Nov. 2). The best two out of three grades will determine your mark for this segment of the evaluation.
3. Final Paper (50%)
☺ A final research paper that explores one or more of the key theoretical perspectives covered in the
seminar. Topics must be chosen in consultation with Professor McDonough. The papers must be 20-25
double-spaced pages (not including references, one-inch margins, 12-point font size). Due date is
December 15, 2010.
The ASA Style Guide for text citation and reference lists is required for all written work (see course kit).
The following criteria will be used for evaluating short papers. The basic principles also apply to the final
paper.
B+
Understanding of the central ideas/arguments in readings
Well-written – coherent, well-organized and concise
A-
The above, plus the ability to integrate and analyze the ideas/arguments in the readings
A
The above, plus the ability to go beyond the readings in a critical and constructive manner (i.e.,
compare and contrast them, consider their implications, articulate your own position in relation to
the central ideas/arguments; and the ability to support your own position
A+
The above, plus intellectual creativity and flexibility (e.g., a new synthesis, insight or application)
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OVERVIEW OF COURSE
Sept. 15
Sept. 22
Sept. 29
Oct. 6
Oct. 13
Oct. 20
Oct. 27
Nov. 3
Nov. 10
Nov. 17
Nov. 24
Dec. 1
Introduction
Structural Functionalism
Interpretive Perspectives I
Interpretive Perspectives II
Neo-Marxist Perspectives
Social Construction of Knowledge
Foucauldian Perspectives
Feminist Perspectives
Racialization and Health
Bourdieu
Sociology of Emotions
Sociology of the Body
Useful Journals:
Body and Society
Critical Public Health
Health
Health and Place
Health, Risk and Society
International Journal of Health Services
Journal of Health and Social Behaviour
Journal of Men’s Health & Gender
Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law
Milbank Quarterly
Research in the Sociology of Health Care
Social Theory and Health
Sociology of Health and Illness
Women & Health
Social Science and Medicine
Useful Overview Texts:
Albrecht, Gary L., Ray Fitzpatrick, and Susan C. Scrimshaw, eds. 2000. Handbook of Social Studies in
Health and Medicine. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Annandale, Ellen. 1998. The Sociology of Health and Medicine: A Critical Introduction. Malden, MA:
Blackwell.
Blaxter, Mildred. 2004. Health. Malden, MA: Polity.
Bolaria, B. Singh and Harley D. Dickinson, eds. 2009. Health, Illness, and Health Care in Canada. 4th ed.
Toronto: Nelson Education.
Bury, Michael. 2004. The Sociology of Health and Illness: A Reader. New York: Routledge.
Cockerham, William C., ed. 2010. The New Blackwell Companion to Medical Sociology. Malden, Mass.:
Wiley-Blackwell.
Conrad, Peter and Rochelle Kern, eds. 2001. The Sociology of Health and Illness: Critical Perspectives.
6th ed. New York, NY. Martin's Press.
Charmaz, Kathy and Debora A. Paterniti, eds. 1999. Health, Illness, and Healing: Society, Social Context,
and Self. Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury Publishing Company.
Frank, Arthur W. 2004. The Renewal of Generosity: Illness, Medicine, and How to Live. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Freund, Peter and Meredith McGuire. 2003. Health, Illness, and the Social Body: A Critical Sociology. 4th
ed. Toronto: Prentice-Hall.
Gabe, Jonathan, Michael Bury, and Mary Ann Elston. 2004. Key Concepts in Medical Sociology.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
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Gerhardt, Uta. 1989. Ideas About Illness: An Intellectual and Political History of Medical Sociology.
London: MacMillan Education Ltd.
Jones, Pip. 2003. Introducing Social Theory. Malden, MA: Polity Press.
Lupton, Deborah. 2003. Medicine as Culture: Illness, Disease and the Body in Western Societies. 2d ed.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Scambler, Graham. 2005. Medical Sociology: Major Themes in Health and Social Welfare. NY:
Routledge.
Scambler, Graham. 2002. Health and Social Change: A Critical Theory. Philadelphia: Open University
Press.
Scambler, Graham, ed. 1987. Sociological Theory and Medical Sociology. New York, NY: Tavistock.
Scambler, Graham and Paul Higgs, eds. 1998. Modernity, Medicine and Health. New York, NY:
Routledge.
Segall, Alexander and Neena L. Chappell. 2000. Health and Health Care in Canada. Toronto: Prentice
Hall.
Turner, Bryan S. 2004. The New Medical Sociology. London: W. W. Norton & Company.
Turner, Bryan S. 1987. Medical Power and Social Knowledge. London: Sage.
Weitz, Rose. 2001. The Sociology of Health, Illness, and Health Care. 2nd ed. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth/Thompson.
White, Kevin C. 2009. An Introduction to the Sociology of Health and Illness. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.
Williams, Simon. 2003. Medicine and the Body. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Williams, Simon J., Gillian A. Bendelow, and Linda Berke, eds. 2003. Debating Biology: Sociological
Reflections on Health, Medicine and Society. London: Routledge.
Williams, Simon J., Jonathan Gabe, and Michael Calnan, eds. 2000. Health, Medicine, and Society: Key
Theories, Future Agendas. New York, NY: Routledge.
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