Reflexive Modernity and the Sociology of Health
The analysis and explanation of increasingly complex social phenomena represents one of the foremost challenges of sociological theory in the twenty-first century. This is particularly important in the sociology of health because definitions of health, me
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Reflexive Modernity and the Sociology of Health Brian P. Hinote and Jason Adam Wasserman
The analysis and explanation of increasingly complex social phenomena represents one of the foremost challenges of sociological theory in the twenty-first century. This is particularly important in the sociology of health because definitions of health, mechanisms of disease, the nature of clinical medicine, and the structure of health care delivery in late modernity are all undergoing fundamental transformations. Undoubtedly, scholars will be better positioned to understand these developments if they also consider the broader social changes from which they emanate. Many transformations in health and medicine stem in large part from the way the epidemiological transition has radiated across macro and micro levels of scale. Medical sociologists must not only engage these phenomena in a critical fashion, but in pushing theory and analysis forward (and maintaining a dynamic and relevant sociology of health), we must also match this complexity with equally complex conceptual frameworks that are able to span the micro–macro divide and connect phenomena at multiple levels of analysis. Put another way, explaining, analyzing, and understanding late modern shifts (or fractures) in health, clinical practice, and health care delivery is critical for medical sociology moving forward and the theoretical and conceptual formulations of health sociology are integral to this endeavor. We draw upon the insights of Ulrich Beck (1992, 1994, 1999) to illustrate the requisite elements of a health sociology “on the move;” one that is capable of engaging various, dynamic health-related phenomena in late modernity. Many
B. P. Hinote (*) Sociology, Middle Tennessee State University, MTSU Box 10, Todd 325, Murfreesboro, TN 37132, USA e-mail: [email protected] J. A. Wasserman Bioethics, Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, 1750 Independence Ave., Kansas City, MO 64106, USA
215 W. C. Cockerham (ed.), Medical Sociology on the Move, DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-6193-3_11, © Springer Science + Business Media Dordrecht 2013
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B. P. Hinote and J. A. Wasserman
contemporary thinkers distinguish themselves by working to span the micro– macro continuum (e.g., Bourdieu 1984, 1990; Giddens 1984, 1991), but medical sociologists seem to underutilize Beck’s work in this regard [Turner (1995) is one notable exception]. We employ Beck’s conceptualization of reflexive modernization to organize and analyze critical developments in the relationship between sociological theory, medicine, and the landscape of health and illness. We assert that connecting these various developments represents a worthwhile endeavor for medical sociology because fractured understandings of contemporary shifts in health and healthcare delivery promote fractured responses to them. To use a medical metaphor, such approaches are like focusing on symptoms of a disease and leaving the cause unaddressed. The critical role that contemporary medical sociological theory can, and should,
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