Sociology of Health Research Papers (original) (raw)

Theorizing a sociology of emotion that links micro-level resources to macro-level forces, this article extends previous work on emotional capital in relation to emotional experiences and management. Emerging from Bourdieu's theory of social practice, emotional capital is a form of cultural capital that includes the emotion-specific, trans-situational resources that individuals activate and embody in distinct fields. Contrary to prior conceptualizations, I argue that emotional capital is neither wholly gender-neutral nor exclusively feminine. Men may lay claim to emotional capital as a valued resource within particular fields. The concept of emotional capital should be seen as distinct from emotion management and felt emotional experience and distinctions between primary and secondary sources of capital clarify the simultaneously durable and evolving nature of capital and the habitus. To illustrate these conceptual refinements, I use interview and diary data from male nurses. Men bring primary emotional capital, developed during primary socialization, to the nursing profession while also developing secondary capital through occupational socialization centered on empathy and compassion. The construct of emotional capital is refined as a structured yet dynamic resource developed through primary and secondary socialization and activated and embodied in everyday emotion practice.

- by Marci Cottingham
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- Medical Sociology, Social Theory, Emotion, Nursing
- by Robert Brym
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- Cancer, Sociology of Health
- by Emma Whelan
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- Women's Health, Computer Networks, Sociology of Health, Michel Foucault
- by Dean Whitehead
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- Sociology of Health, Sociology of Health and Illness

Using a dialogical narrative approach, this original research explored how combat veterans experiencing
post-traumatic stress disorder made sense of peer relationships with other veterans and what effects these
relationships had on their well-being. Interviews and participant observations were conducted with 15 male
combat veterans (aged 27–60 years) and one member of the civilian emergency services, the majority of
whom were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder following traumatic exposure in a range of armed
conflicts. All participants were part of a surfing charity for veterans experiencing post-traumatic stress
disorder. Data were rigorously analysed using a dialogical narrative analysis (DNA). Findings revealed the
collective story that veterans used to make sense of peer relationships within the group. This collective
story worked for the veterans to shape their experiences of well-being by fostering camaraderie, stimulating
deeper connections and countering the negative effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. Potential
therapeutic effects of the collective story were also identified. This article extends previous knowledge on
combat veterans and social relationships and advances the field of narrative health psychology through the
empirical application of a sophisticated dialogical narrative approach.
Keywords
combat veterans, narrative, post-traumatic stress disorder, social relationships, well-being

- by Brett Smith
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- Sociology of Sport, Sport Psychology, Health Psychology, Narrative

This paper examines cancer through the lens of abjection. While cancer can be understood as an abject lifeform, we explore what we name the abject ontologies created through both cancer detection technologies/practices and cancer treatment, specifically the drug combination Adriamycin and Cytoxan. We ask: what are the abject ontologies produced through living with and living on from cancer diagnosis and treatment? Our concern is to map how cancer undoes our supposedly stable categories inherited from modernist logic, challenges our very ideas of what it means to be human, and demands an ethical reorientation of public cancer discourse.

- by Nadine Ehlers
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- Critical Theory, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Gender Studies

Past research yields mixed evidence regarding whether ethnoracial minorities trust physicians less than Whites. Using the 2002 and 2006 General Social Surveys, variegated ethnoracial differences in trust in physicians are identified by disaggregating a multidimensional physician trust scale. Compared to Whites, Blacks are less likely to trust the technical judgment and interpersonal competence of doctors. Latinos are less likely than Whites to trust the fiduciary ethic, technical judgment, and interpersonal competence of doctors. Black-Latino differences in physician trust are a function of ethnoracial differences in parental nativity. The ways ethnoracial hierarchies are inscribed into power-imbalanced clinical exchanges are discussed.

- by Abigail A Sewell
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- Medical Sociology, Trust, Health Care, Race and Ethnicity
- by Deborah Lupton
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- Sociology, Medical Sociology, Medical Anthropology, Health Promotion

Le développement de la télémédecine est devenu un enjeu dans le système de soins, en particulier dans les EHPAD où il est important pour les résidents de pouvoir accéder rapidement à des consultations spécialisées tout en préservant une bonne qualité de vie. Cet article présente une étude qui montre les difficultés d’installation de la télémédecine dans les EHPAD et interroge les conditions d’appropriation de cet outil par les professionnels du soin. Basée sur une étude multisite et 25 entretiens semi-directifs, l’enquête montre que ces établissements évoluent dans un contexte organisationnel fragile qui rend difficile l’encastrement de la télémédecine dans les pratiques et routines professionnelles.

- by Emmanuel Langlois
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- Sociology of Health, Telemedicine, France, Nursing Homes
- by Charlie Davison
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- Sociology, Health Education, Sociology of Health, Sociology of Health and Illness

Antologien synliggjør bredden i det helsesosiologiske forskningsfeltet. I helsesosiologien forstås og analyseres helse, sykdom og behandling (institusjoner, profesjoner, kunnskap og praksis) som samfunnsmessige fenomener. Eksempler på sentrale temaer er hvordan folk opplever egen helse og helseproblemer, hvordan det medisinske faget utvikles i vitenskapelig, klinisk-praktisk og samfunnsmessig kontekst, hvordan ulike profesjonelle forståelser og lekforståelser av helse og sykdom forvaltes, hvordan skillet mellom medisinsk relevante og irrelevante problemer (sykdommer versus ikke-sykdommer) defineres, hvordan sykehusene som organisasjon virker, og hvordan sosiale helseulikheter oppstår. Ved å rette blikket mot hvordan forståelse av helse og sykdom konstrueres i samspillet mellom helsevitenskapene, helsevesenets institusjoner og samfunnet og dets medlemmer, bidrar 27 forskere i denne boka med nyanserte analyser av ulike forhold knyttet tilhelse og sykdom. Boka henvender seg til studenter, forskere og praktikere innen samfunnsvitenskap, medisin og andre helsefag.

- by Aksel Tjora
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- Medical Sociology, Sociology of Health, Norway

Objective: This paper intends to evaluate inflammatory proteins and
hematological factors concurrently blood obtained during the
cupping and with the venous blood.
Methods: About 30 samples of 10 men participated in this clinical
evaluative study aged between 23 and 58 years. The hematological
factors were evaluated by by KX-. Cytokines (IL-10) & hs-CRP were
measured by a sensitive sandwich ELISA kit.
Results: Analysis of the results showed a significant difference in
many of the inflammatory proteins, hematological factors between
the venous blood and the cupping blood.
Conclusion: Based on the results of the comparison between venous
blood and cupping blood, the cupping blood is different, both in
components and immunologic response.

- by Karen Willis
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- Trust, Sociology of Health, Mammography

In questo libro il legame fra salute, medicina e società viene dapprima analiz-zato in prospettiva microsociologica, osservando, cioè, come salute e malattia si radichino nei corpi degli individui e nelle loro relazioni sociali. Si passa poi al livello delle organizzazioni sociali intermedie: dalla famiglia alle professioni sa-nitarie, all'ospedale, ai servizi territoriali e domiciliari e alle comunità locali. Da ultimo, vengono esaminati i processi sociali di più vasta portata, focalizzando l'attenzione sulle politiche sanitarie, sui sistemi sanitari e sulle disuguaglianze sociali di salute, e affrontando le problematiche venute più di recente ad emersione.

- by Teresa Davis
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- Sociology, Publishing, Australian Studies, Sociology of Food and Eating

Globally, public health agencies recognise obesity trends among populations as a priority. Explanations for population obesity patterns are linked to obesogenic environments and societal trends which encourage patterns of overeating and little physical activity. However, obesity prevention and nutrition intervention focus predominantly on changing individual level eating behaviours. Disappointingly, behaviour-based nutrition education approaches to changing population eating patterns have met with limited success. Sociological perspectives propose that underlying social relations can help explain collective food and eating patterns, and suggest an analysis of the sociocultural context for understanding population eating patterns. We propose a theoretical framework for the examination of eating patterns as social phenomena. Giddens’ structuration theory, in particular his concept of social practices understood as an interplay of ‘agency’ and ‘social structure’ (rules and resources), is used to study food choice patterns. We discuss the application of these concepts for understanding routine food choice practices of families, elaborating how rules and resources configure the enabling or constraining conditions under which actors make food choices. The framework assists in characterising how social structural properties are integral to food choice practices, and could direct attention to these when considering nutrition interventions aimed at changing population eating patterns.

- by Treena Delormier
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- Sociology, Health Promotion, Social Marketing, Sociology of Health

Contemporary research into health treats diagnosis as a central step in illness management and trajectories. Most public health policies, especially in the case of Alzheimer’s disease, claim that the earlier a diagnosis is made, the better it is for patients and caregivers. Quantitative and qualitative analysis from our longitudinal interview study, conducted with 60 caregivers of persons diagnosed with dementia, shows that this usual model of diagnosis [symptoms → diagnosis → meaning and caregiving] should be nuanced. First, diagnosis does not follow increased symptoms, but occurs rather through a process involving the observability of patients’ troubles and their interpretation of said troubles as requiring medical assistance ‐the ‘trouble?observability?interpretation convergence.’ Second, diagnosis does not systematically trigger the mobilisation of a caregiving network: such mobilisation may follow the diagnosis, but it can also provoke it, temporarily prevent it, or have no immediate impact. These observations beg the question: To what extent does diagnosis matter? We conclude by questioning the centrality of diagnosis in the illness trajectories and its crucial role in the mobilisation of a caregiving network, that is often taken for granted, and propose to distinguish between ‘anticipation diagnosis’ and ‘emergency diagnosis’.

- by Deborah Lupton
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- Medical Sociology, New Media, Cyborg Theory, Digital Humanities

Articolato in tre parti, il volume offre innanzitutto una descrizione e una valutazione di informazioni emerse dall’osservazione approfondita di casi di contenzione di malati psichiatrici nell’ambito di Servizi Psichiatrici di Diagnosi e Cura in Piemonte, per poi occuparsi dei limiti di compatibilità della contenzione con la Costituzione e le leggi. Infine, viene proposta un’esposizione della disciplina giuridica (o talvolta assenza di disciplina) nel diritto comparato di alcuni paesi europei, con attenzione anche alle differenze nella regolamentazione sui trattamenti sanitari obbligatori in ambito psichiatrico. Quest’ultima parte contiene anche un confronto di alcuni dei casi rilevati nell’osservazione delle prassi rispetto alle varie normative vigenti nei diversi paesi considerati. La prima parte dell’indagine è stata svolta da sociologi, la seconda e la terza da giuristi. Nel corso della ricerca frequenti e stretti sono stati i momenti di confronto tra gli autori per assicurare un risultato che possa veramente dirsi interdisciplinare.

- by Mario Cardano and +4
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- Psychiatry, Psychosis, Ethnography, Mental Health

La place de la sociologie en Algérie est celle qu’occupent les sciences sociales, la recherche scientifique, le savoir et la culture en général: elle se cherche. Elle n’a pas eu de prise sur la société qu’elle n’a pas su approcher ou analyser. « Aujourd’hui, elle s’interroge sur les raisons de son échec, remet en cause ses pratiques anciennes, ses méthodes et tente tant bien que mal de se remettre au travail lentement et sûrement pour produire de la connaissance scientifique »(RÉNAUD,2006).
L’un des principes de la sociologie est l’indivision des Sciences sociales. La compréhension des faits sociaux ne peut être que multidisciplinaire, d’où la nécessité de travailler ensemble sous forme d’équipes, de groupes de recherches de diverses disciplines.
La sociologie de la santé a pour objet d’étudier les interactions qui existent entre les composantes du système de santé et du système social.
« La maladie et la santé ne sont pas des simples problèmes biologiques qui affectent le corps humain. Ce sont aussi des problèmes à caractère social et culturel »(RÉNAUD,2006)..
La problématique de la sociologie de la santé et son positionnement dans un contexte mondial nous permet de départiculariser le cas algérien. Ainsi, la sociologie dans son contexte algérien, à l'instar de la sociologie dans son contexte mondial, est confrontée, dans ses rapports avec la santé/maladie, à la cécité du système de santé.

- by massika lanane
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- Sociology of Health

Background: Many women in countries in the global North access digital media information sources during pregnancy and the early years of motherhood. These include websites, blogs, online discussion forums, apps and social media platforms. Little previous research has sought to investigate in detail how women use the diverse range of digital media now available to them and what types of information they value. A qualitative study using focus groups was conducted to address these issues. Methods: Four focus groups were held in Sydney, Australia, including a total of 36 women who were either pregnant or had given birth in the previous three years. The participants were asked to talk about the types of digital media they used for pregnancy and parenting purposes, why they used them and in what ways they found them useful or helpful (or not). Group discussions were transcribed and thematically analysed, identifying the dominant information characteristics identified by women as valuable and useful.

- by Deborah Lupton
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- Medical Sociology, Obstetrics, New Media, Digital Media

Tato práce se zabývá šestou kapitolou z knihy Myslet sociologicky od polsko-britského sociologa Zygmunta Baumana a Tima Maye (2004). Popíše jejich myšlenky z dané kapitoly a zanalyzuje je. V druhé části práce je porovnání s první kapitolou knihy Sociologická imaginace od Charlese W. Millse (2008). Na závěr práce je uveden příklad, který se vztahuje k jednomu ze zvolených témat Baumanovy knihy, konkrétně k mentální anorexii.

- by Marcelo E P Castellanos
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- Sociology of Health
- by Simone Fullagar
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- Sociology of Families, Health Promotion, Family studies, Governmentality

Fathers play a significant role in shaping family life. Yet Australian men’s transitions to fatherhood have been neglected in research and in antenatal support/education programs. Drawing on contemporary theories of masculinity, this article explores how a cohort of 25 first-time fathers in Tasmania, Australia, experienced 2 different father-only antenatal support/education groups. In particular, I was interested in how men negotiate masculinity and “involved fatherhood” in the context of these groups. I argue that the settings in which Tasmanian men are invited to prepare for fatherhood can be experienced in contradictory ways (e.g., pubs vs. hospitals or community centers). Strategies to better support men in the transition to fatherhood are offered in the concluding discussion.

- by Meredith Nash
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- Sociology, Sociology of Families, Gender Studies, Sexual and Reproductive Health
- by Michi Ferreol
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- Sociology of Health, Health Care Ethics, Disaster Management

Why do some mental illnesses emerge in certain times and places and later disappear? Because it integrates a wide array of social processes and relies on a strong epistemological position, Hacking's theory of ecological niches constitutes the most comprehensive and ambitious attempt to answer this question. However, this theory lacks a convincing definition of its research object ("transient mental illnesses"), a conceptualization of how individuals would "fall ill" as well as a solid methodological framework to form case studies. This article addresses these issues in order to propose an extended theory of ecological niches.

- by Baptiste Brossard
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- Medical Sociology, Sociology Of Deviance, Mental Health, Philosophy of Medicine

Neste livro apresentam-se os temas, as teorias, os conceitos, os autores e a investigação que tem sido realizada no âmbito da sociologia da saúde em Portugal e à escala internacional. A «Introdução à Sociologia da Saúde» aborda um... more

- by David Tavares
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- Sociology of Health

The subject of humanization of health services and health practices has been object of several researches and publications in Collective Health field because of their importance for constitution of practices and services focused on health care. This study aimed to analyze the concept of humanization, its use and referents, within the production of Collective Health field. Qualitative methodology was chosen, and the empirical part consisted of 98 published articles that were selected from a search in LILACS and SCIELO databases. They were chosen through the keyword ‘health service’ data crossing with ‘violence’, ‘humanization ‘ and ‘dehumanization’ and the keyword ‘work in health’ data crossing with ‘violence’, ‘humanization’ and ‘dehumanization’. In addition to these, the keyword ‘clinical encounter’ was sought separately. This search showed a huge polysemy of the concept of humanization within Collective Health field as well as a great diversity of referents. We took into account the transformations occurring within medical work, and consequently within health work in modernity, and Hannah Arendt's political reflection, mainly on the concepts of ‘authority’, ‘crisis’, ‘birth’, ‘power’, ‘tradition’ and ‘violence’. From this, we sought to enrich the debate and to bring contributions of the Arendtian concepts presenting new conceptual distinctions and possibilities of approach still little explored in Collective Health field.

- by Yuri Nishijima Azeredo
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- Violence, Sociology of Health, Public Health, Hannah Arendt

El libro recoge los resultados de una investigación con once grupos de discusión sobre las percepciones de las clases populares en torno a la alimentación sana. Se analizan los principales esquemas de categorización de la alimentación sana -los esquemas de natural y de comer de todo- y su utilización estratégica por parte de las madres de clases populares para presentarse como buenas madres.

- by Enrique Martin-Criado and +1
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- Sociology of Food and Eating, Obesity, Sociology of Health, Ideologies of Motherhood

This discussion paper outlines the concept of ‘Action Nursing’ (AN), acknowledging its relation to ‘Action Sociology’ (Scambler, 2012a), basing its justification on social and health inequalities. A few challenges will be acknowledged in putting forward this view, but done so in recognition that AN might be part of wider ‘social movements from below’ (Cox & Nilsen, 2014). It also briefly provides a view of what the role of nurse academics might be in Higher Education vis a vis activism. This discussion is rooted firmly in the acknowledgement of the ‘politics of nursing’ and that some nurses may be feeling despair following reports into poor quality patient experiences (e.g. Francis 2010, 2013, RCP 2016). Various pressures can lead to disenchantment, disengagement and disillusionment with both politics and health care delivery systems in the UK and Internationally (Bickhoff, 2014; Maben, Latter & MacLeod Clark, 2007; Twibell et al., 2012). Jane Salvage suggested that nurses ‘wake up and get out from under’ (Salvage, 1985) and while recognising that for some this past entreaty to engage politically may further entrench those feelings, the need for nurses and nursing to do so has not diminished. As Stuckler and Basu argue, government policy becomes a matter of life and death as ‘Austerity is Killing people’ (Stuckler & Basu, 2013) and is seriously damaging their mental health (PAA 2015). Nurses are part of the front line in promoting health and working for those who are ill, dying or living with long term conditions and extremes of human misery (Grant 2015, Smith and Grant 2016). Their work is therefore framed by politics and political decisions. The bottom line is that there is a ‘bottom line’ to nurses’ work. Governments prioritise resources depending on their values, ideologies, lobbying and political expediency. As millions of people in the UK, and billions across the globe, experience a daily struggle to both give and receive social and health support as outlined in the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (Global Goals 2015), nurses should consider allying themselves with progressive forces which seek to redress the balance of power which currently results in inequalities in health (Dorling, 2013; Dorling, 2014; Dorling & Thomas, 2016; Marmot, 2015; Scambler, 2012b) and financial pressures in health (Appleby et al 2015) and social support (Collingwood 2015). ‘Progressive forces’ in this paper has a wide meaning and does not name political parties or philosophies. However, Action Nursing wishes to remove the ‘flowers from the chains’ so that we more clearly see what holds us back in providing more equitable health and social support for people

- by Benny Goodman
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- Nursing, Sociology of Health, Nursing Education
- by Deborah Lupton
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- Medical Sociology, Nursing, Sociology of Health, Sociology of Health and Illness
- by Jill Schostak
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- Discourse Analysis, Sociology, Medical Sociology, Sociology of Work
- by Rich Furman
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- Sociology, Medical Sociology, Sociology of Culture, Psychology

Les accidents du travail et les maladies professionnelles sont les concrétisations les plus répondues des risques professionnels qui sont nombreux et variés « si certains sont bénins et sans conséquences, un nombre non négligeable d’entre eux sont graves, voire mortels »
(MARGOSSIAN, 2003). Ces risques n’ont pas seulement un rapport avec les problèmes de santé des travailleurs, mais aussi ils perturbent la vie économique, sociale et morale de l’individu. Donc le milieu du travail doit être saint et sauf. Seulement ce n’est pas le cas pour la plus part des travailleurs exposés à plusieurs nuisances (bruit, vibration, produit chimique toxique…) qui agressent l’intégrité physique de l’homme. Par conséquent, l’étude de ces risques nécessite une recherche approfondie des causes et des conséquences afin de comprendre les mécanismes et facteurs favorisant leur apparition dans une entreprise, parce que la continuité de l’évolution de cette dernière réside dans l’amélioration des conditions de vie au travail qui est devenue l’ « une des premières préoccupations de l’entreprise et qui doit être conçue comme une stratégie sociale progressive, dont l’objectif est de réduire la fatigue et les nuisances, d’augmenter l’intérêt au travail, les qualifications et les occasions d’épanouissement personnel »(CITEAU ,2002). Ainsi l’évolution des techniques de prévention et de sécurité afin de minimiser les risques pour préserver la santé des travailleurs et de leurs permettre de travailler en toute sécurité. Cela est non seulement dans l’intérêt des salariés mais aussi de celui de leur entreprise qui s’inscrit dans la suppression de ces risques. « Dans les pays en voie d’industrialisation ou encore les pays non démocratiques, où les lois sont soit inexistantes, soit mal ou pas appliquées, les conséquences des accidents du travail et maladies professionnelles sont dramatiques pour les populations laborieuse » (MARGOSSIAN, 2003), donc il est nécessaire de prendre en considération le facteur humain qui est un enjeu primordial de l’entreprise. Ainsi que des mesures normatives et réglementaires mises en œuvre tant au niveau national qu’international.
Sur cette optique, nous avons mené une enquête ayant pour thème « les mesures de prévention et leur rôle dans la diminution des risques professionnels » au sein d’une entreprise publique algérienne qui est l’entreprise portuaire de Bejaia (EPB), et plus précisément à la direction de manutention et acconage (DMA), une entreprise commerciale destinée pour le trafic de la marchandise, pour connaître la réalité des risques professionnels imposés par le monde du travail dans une entreprise algérienne, et connaître aussi la politique de prévention établie par cette dernière et sa capacité de la réduction des accidents du travail et les maladies professionnelles .Cet article vise à avoir une idée sur la vie professionnelle qui peut être une porte au monde de travail, connaître la gestion des entreprises et leur dynamique sociale, contribuer à la prévention d’un meilleur encadrement et une meilleure sécurité par laquelle les salariés pourraient développer leurs savoir, savoir faire, et savoir être.

- by massika lanane
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- Sociology of Health

To fully understand the sociocultural implications of the COVID-19 crisis, it is important to be aware of the substantial body of research in sociology, anthropology, history, cultural geography and media studies on previous major infectious disease outbreaks. This chapter 'sets the scene' by providing this context with an overview of the relevant literature. The perspectives offered by social histories, political economy perspectives, social constructionism, Foucauldian theory, risk theory, postcolonial and sociomaterial approaches are explained and examples of research using these approaches are provided. Analyses of the COVID crisis should acknowledge and build on this extensive body of work, taking inspiration from the valuable insights that are offered and working to contextualise the current pandemic within its frameworks.

- by Deborah Lupton
- •
- Medical Sociology, Social Theory, Cultural Geography, Medical Anthropology

"In the past decades, public health has increasingly addressed what has been called the children’s obesity ‘epidemic’,
most notably through large-scale initiatives promoting physical activity. Through a discourse analysis the current
paper critically examines such efforts in Canadian and Australian public health. Public health websites in Canada and
Australia were examined for information concerning children’s health, physical activity and obesity and explored for how
these issues were represented in the discourse. Bacchi’s (2009) ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ approach to discourse
analysis guided our interrogation of the taken-for-granted assumptions underlying Canadian and Australian public health
discourse, the ideological and political infl uences involved in its construction, and the knowledge base upon which it rests.
The article calls for critical refl ection on how children’s physical and leisure activities are being advanced."

Early exposure to environmental chemicals is associated with multiple health problems, including neurological and reproductive disorders. In response to this problem, the environmental health movement has emerged as a leading authority on strategies of self-protection, or what we call " precautionary consumption. " In this paper, we use discourse analysis to examine two decades of environmental health reports and advice from a key organization in the United States: the Environmental Working Group (EWG). During this period, the discourse of environmental health used by this organization presents babies as contaminated before birth, and mothers as vectors of chemical risk. This discourse locates risk within three primary sources: first, inadequate regulation of environmental chemicals; second, maternal environments of the body and home; and finally, maternal desires for food and beauty. We argue that EWG strategically mobilizes existing medical and scientific discourses surrounding maternal bodies to build greater support for chemical regulation. Key to this discursive construction is a differential attribution of blame and responsibility, where blame for pollution is assigned to regulatory failure, yet responsibility for mediating children's exposure is assigned to individual mothers. This social construction of pollution as a mother's problem is not only gendered but also classed and racialized, and warrants greater attention in feminist research. Our analysis also contributes to scholarship on the maternal-fetal conflict by tracing the ambiguous place of maternal self-care within constructions of child well-being, and advances research on the regulation of women's bodies and actions throughout their reproductive lives.

- by Kate Cairns
- •
- Environmental Sociology, Environmental Health, Sociology of Health, Feminism

Applying four analytic lenses (consumption, communication, community, and responsibility) and three forms of agency (objectivation, activation, and engagement) this paper develops a conceptual platform for the analysis of the impact of health-care ICTs. It is argued that a closer study of applications within tele-medicine, health informatics, and e-health needs to take into account (changes in) patient roles to tie innovation to the act of health-care delivery. The typological multi-faceted concept of digital patient is suggested as an inspiration towards a continued and strengthened multi-disciplinary approach to research on and development of information systems within health-care.

- by Aksel Tjora
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- Sociology, Medical Sociology, Sociology of Health, Doctor-patient communication
- by Nick J Fox
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- Sociology of Health, Postmodernism

In recent years, a plethora of visualising and other monitoring technologies directed at female fertility and reproduction have emerged. The introduction of new software applications and hardware devices has led to novel ways of portraying and surveilling the fertile female body. Consonant with these technologies is the emergence of a discourse that valorises self-tracking, or the voluntary monitoring of one’s body for health, wellbeing and self-optimisation, often employing digital devices. These discourses and technologies configure the subject of the digitised reproductive citizen, or the woman who uses digital technologies as part of an ethos of devoting a high level of attention to monitoring and managing her reproductive functioning and health. In this chapter, I focus on the numerous digital technologies that have been developed to monitor, visualise and regulate female fertility and pregnancy. I argue that this genre of software is intensifying an already fervid atmosphere of self-surveillance, attempts at management and control and self-responsibility in which female fertility and reproduction are experienced and performed. Further, these devices enrol their users into the broader digital knowledge economy, in which users are configured as digital data assemblages, often for the purposes of commercial profit. The novel digital practices of ‘mastering your fertility’, therefore, bring together the private with the public spheres in new ways.

- by Deborah Lupton
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- Sociology, Medical Sociology, Gender Studies, Health Communication

შესავალი: ევთანაზიის უფლება დღეს მსოფლიო დისკუსიის საგანია, ვინაიდან იგი ერთ-ერთი საკამათო სამედიცინო, რელიგიური, პოლიტიკური თუ ეთიკური ხასიათის საკითხია. კვლევის მიზანია მართლმადიდებელი მრევლის დამოკიდებულებების შესწავლა ევთანაზიის მიმართ. მეთოდოლოგია: რაოდენობრივი კვლევის ფარგლებში ჩატარდა რესპოდენტთა გამოკითხვა ნახევრად-სტრუქტურირებული კითხვარის მეშვეობით. შედეგები: კვლევის შედეგად გამოვლინდა, რომ რეპონდენტების უმრავლესობას (81%) ჰქონდა ინფორმაცია ევთანაზიის შესახებ. დომინანტურია მოსაზრება იმის შესახებ, რომ ევთანაზია არის: “თანხმობა სიცოცხლის შეწყვეტაზე ავადმყოფობის დროს, როცა გამოსავალი არ არსებობს და შეუძლებელია განკურნება.“ ან „უკურნებელი სენით დაავადებული ადამიანი საკუთარი ნებით გადაწყვეტს, რომ სიცოცხლე დაასრულოს უმტკივნეულოდ“. ვინც არ ეთანხმება ევთანაზიას იშველიებს რელიგიურ ფაქტორებს (რატომ კრძალავს ეკლესია და ა.შ). ისინი ვინც ეთანხმებიან ევთანაზიის ქმედებას, არგუმენტად მოჰყავთ ადამიანის კანონიერი უფლებები და პიროვნების თავისუფალი ნება. რესპოდენტების უმრავლესობას (86%) არ სმენია ევთანაზიის პრაქტიკების შესახებ საქართველოში. რესპონდენტების უმრავლესობამ (71%) იცოდა, რომ მართლმადიდებლური ეკლესია კრძალავს ევთანაზიას. რესპონდენტების 39%-ის აზრით, ევთანაზია გამართლებულია სამედიცინო კუთხით. დასკვნა, რეკომენდაციები: მიზანშეწონილია საზოგადოების ცნობიერების ამაღლება ევთანაზიის შესახებ რელიგიური, სამედიცინო, კულტურული, სოციალური და სამართლებრივი კუთხით. სასურველია, მსგავსი კვლევების მეტი ჩატარება.

- by Tengiz Verulava
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- Sociology of Health, Sociology of Health and Illness
- by Stephen Zavestoski and +1
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- Sociology, Medical Sociology, Social Change, Social Movements