Medical Talk and Medical Work

Paul Atkinson

ISBN 10: 080397731X / ISBN 13: 9780803977310

Published by SAGE Publications Inc, US, 1995

About this Item

The development of a sociology of medical knowledge is both assessed and contributed to in Medical Talk and Medical Work.Underlying the analysis is research on the work of haematologists, which offers a rich resource for understanding the complexities and contradictions between physical bodies and social embodiment, medical talk and technical apparatus. Using but moving beyond this specific material, Paul Atkinson demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of the existing understanding of medical knowledge. Among the issues explored are: the place of interaction among doctors, rather than between doctors and patients, in defining the construction of medical knowledge; the ways in which clinical opinion is socially produced and the nature of the local settings through which this process occurs; and the relations among medical knowledge, medical language and the increasingly technological contexts of contemporary medical practice.

Seller Inventory # LU-9780803977310

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Medical Talk and Medical Work
• Publisher: SAGE Publications Inc, US
• Publication Date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 080397731X
• ISBN 13: 9780803977310
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 290 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Recent years have seen the development of a sociology of medical knowledge, including the construction of medical opinion, the fabric of medical discourse, and the medical construction of the body.

This volume both assesses and contributes to this sociological understanding of medical practice. Underlying the analysis is research on the work of hematologists, offering a rich resource for understanding the complexities and contradictions between physical bodies and social embodiment, medical talk, and technical apparatus. Using this material, the author skillfully demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of the existing understanding of medical knowledge. Among the issues explored are:

About the Author

Paul Atkinson is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Cardiff University. Recent publications include For Ethnography (SAGE 2014) and Thinking Ethnographically (SAGE 2017). The fourth book in his quartet will be Crafting Ethnography, also for SAGE. The fourth edition of Hammersley and Atkinson Ethnography: Principles in Practice was published by Routledge in 2019. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and of the Learned Society of Wales.