The Study and Its Methods

Abstract

Recent decades have seen an increasing number of sociological papers reflecting upon the field of the sociology of health and medicine. As might be expected, the greater proportion of the literature assessing the field’s progress and predicting its future trends is from the United States (e.g. Freeman and Reeder 1957; Straus 1957; Wardwell 1982; Cockerham 1983, 2005b; Bloom 1986, 2002; Mechanic 1989, 1993; Zola 1991; Pearlin 1992; Gaziano 1996; Waitzkin 1998; Clair et al. 2007; Evans 2009). The United Kingdom also provides a significant set of assessments, though on a lesser scale (Johnson 1975; Stacey and Homans 1978; Jefferys 1991; Blane 2003; Scambler 2005; Seale 2008), and there is a proportionally smaller offering from Australia (Ward 1979; Willis 1982, 1991; Manderson 1998; Willis and Broom 2004; Collyer 2011b).