Who Needs the Sociology of Health and Illness? A New Agenda for Responsive and Interdisciplinary Sociology of Health and Medicine

Abstract

Health and medicine are key areas of sociological specialization, but in the face of rapid global challenges, they are changing. The need for change is becoming more and more urgent and the relevance of some of the traditional approaches, frameworks and theoretical perspectives should be evaluated. The aim of this article is to reflect on this issue and to explore what could be done in response to scientific and societal developments. We argue that more innovative approaches and better research questions would guide us to be more responsive as medical sociologists. In particular, we think that interdisciplinary and translative work hold untapped potentials for our field.

Sociologists in public health: marginal observers or mainstream collaborators?

“…As Karvonen et al. 13 suggest, This requires new forms of data production and more intense interaction with end users and stakeholders . .…”

Contextual Exceptionalism After Death: An Information Ethics Approach to Post-Mortem Privacy in Health Data Research

“…In addition, post-mortem GE arises from the medical view of genetic samples as parts of our bodies that can be ‘banked’ for material: “the human body is becoming perceived as a biobank or raw material consisting of genes, cells and tissues” (Karvonen et al, 2018 ). Proponents of GE think that genetic biobanking is more invasive than health data collection, but we disagree.…”