bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Student nurses’ construction of occupational socialisation1
Authors: Melia Kath M. 
Published: February 2004

AbstractThis paper examines the occupational socialisation of British nurses. It uses Bucher and Strauss's notion of segmentation and considers two major segments within nursing: the education segment which, through the colleges of nursing, promotes a ‘professional’ version of nursing, and the service segment which is concerned with getting nursing work done. Students’ accounts of their training were obtained by means of 40 informal interviews. On the basis of these accounts it is argued that the students learn neither the education nor the service segment's version of nursing, rather they learn to recognise when one version is appropriate and the other not and ‘fit in’ accordingly. The organisation of nurse training is based on a compromise between the two segments whereby the students move between clinical placements and the college of nursing; in this way both versions of nursing are enforceable on the students. The paper argues that nursing as an occupation, by its organisation and compromise solution to the training of its recruits, supports a transient approach to nursing work itself and so implicitly supports a lack of commitment to nursing as an occupation.
Social class and psychological ill‐health during unemployment
Authors: Payne Roy , Warr Peter , Hartley Jean 
Published: February 2004

AbstractThis study explores psychological health and the experience of being unemployed for between 6 and 11 months in two social class groups: unskilled and semi‐skilled workers v. white‐collar, managerial and professional workers. The respondents were British married men aged between 25 and 39. Information was obtained through interviews about financial and other problems, perceived threats associated with unemployment, anxiety, depression, general psychological distress and ratings of general health. It was expected that the working‐class sample would exhibit poorer psychological health than the middle‐class, but this was not confirmed. Medium‐term unemployment appeared to have a homogenizing effect, with similarly poor health in both social class samples, although working‐class respondents reported significantly greater financial problems and difficulties in filling the time.
The genesis of chronic illness: narrative re‐construction
Authors: Williams Gareth 
Published: February 2004

AbstractIn this paper I demonstrate the way in which people's beliefs about the aetiology of their particular affliction (arthritis) need to be understood as part of a more comprehensive imaginative enterprise which I refer to as narrative reconstruction. The intrinsically teleological form of this enterprise means that identified ‘causes’ represent r only putative efficient connexions between the disease and antecedent factors but also narrative reference points between the individual and society in an unfolding process which has become profoundly disrupted. Through the presentation of case material taken from lengthy interviews I illustrate the way in which my question to the subjects about the cause of their disease: ‘Why do you think you got arthritis?’ was translated by them into a narrative reconstruction of their changing relationship to the world in which they live and the genesis of illness within it.
Rudolf Virchow on the typhus epidemic in Upper Silesia: an introduction and translation
Authors: Taylor Rex , Rieger Annelie 
Published: February 2004

AbstractRudolf Virchow's Report on the 1848 typhus epidemic is one of the neglected classics of ‘social medicine’— a term he did much to popularise. His analysis of the epidemic emphasised the economic, social and cultural factors involved in its aetiology and clearly identified the contradictory social forces that prevented any simple solution. Instead of recommending medical changes like more doctors or hospitals, he outlined a revolutionary programme of social reconstruction; including full employment, higher wages, the establishment of agricultural co‐operatives, universal education and the disestablishment of the Catholic church. The present paper includes the first English translation of these long‐term recommendations. It also locates Virchow's Report within the context of the Medical Reform Movement of 1848 and traces his influence on the subsequent development of social medicine. Parallels are drawn between Virchow's attempts to reform health care and current developments in the political economy of health.
Paid employment and women's health: a benefit or a source of role strain?
Authors: Arber Sara , Gilbert G. Nigel , Dale Angela 
Published: February 2004

Abstract Two contrasting theories of the relationship between paid employment and women's health are examined using data from the 1975 and 1976 General Household Survey. The ‘role accumulation’ hypothesis, which proposes that paid employment has beneficial effects on health, was supported for women without children, and for women over 40 with children. However, the causal ordering is unclear, for there is evidence that ill‐health reduces the likelihood of labour‐force participation especially among women over 40. When those reporting chronic illness are excluded, the association between being a housewife and short‐term illness largely disappears.The contrasting hypothesis, that for married women with children the strain of occupying multiple roles leads to poorer health, was also supported, but only for women under 40 who work full‐time and have children. These women reported higher levels of illness, although this was less clear among women working in professional and managerial jobs. It is concluded that full‐time work for young mothers may be detrimental for their health unless there are adquate financial resources to help with the burden of maintaining the multiple roles of housewife, mother and employee, or until the sexual division of labour in the home changes.
Women's health or social control? the role of the medical profession in relation to factory legislation in late nineteenth century Britain
Authors: Harrison Barbara 
Published: February 2004

AbstractBased on an analysis of primary and secondary documentary sources this paper examines the relationship of medical men to state intervention in women's labour. Focusing on factory legislation it explores the extent to which this intervention may be seen as an attempt to alleviate the health consequences of industrial work or as a means of social control, which is defined here in terms of actual restrictions on women's participation in the paid labour market and of the assertion of their primary role within the private domain. The involvement of medical practitioners in such questions is also assessed in terms of the consequences for industrial medicine. The paper argues that factory legislation failed to meet either its social purpose, or the health needs of working women, while reinforcing the ideology of 'separate spheres’and the moral and social responsibilities of the state
Inequality in health and the class position of women ‐ the Norwegian experience
Authors: Dahl Espen 
Published: February 2004

AbstractThe paper examines whether different ways of classifying women in the socioeconomic hierarchy make a difference with regard to health. Among sociologists there has been much dispute on how to classify women in the class structure. The insights from this debate, however, have attracted negligible attention in contemporary research on social inequalities in health. Four ways of classifying women are identified and operationalized: the conventional, the individual the cross‐class, and the pre‐war generational approach. Using a nation‐wide representative data set, their associations with a dichotomous measure of self‐reported health are investigated. Logistic regression analyses show that only one approach yields significant results (p<0.05): the conventional. In this model, health is inversely associated with socioeconomic status. Possible interpretations of these results are discussed. The findings imply that the conclusions drawn in Norwegian studies of social inequalities in health and in use of health services must be questioned and should be reconsidered.
Style of life and the salience of health: an exploratory study of health related practices in households from differing socio‐economic circumstances
Authors: Calnan Michael , Williams Simon 
Published: February 2004

AbstractThis paper describes results from a small scale study, using qualitative interview methods, which attempts to explain variations in health‐related practices between households living in contrasting social and economic circumstances. The approach and methodology adopted put an emphasis on spontaneous, unprompted discourse, in an attempt to discover how ideas about matters of health and health‐related practices are integrated into routine daily life, and how this routine daily life is shaped by social and economic circumstances. The evidence from this study shows that irrespective of social and economic circumstances, matters of health rarely surfaced in people's descriptions of their lives and neither did health concerns in the context of behaviour. The implications of these and other findings are discussed in an attempt to explain the link between social structure and behaviour.
Potency: a readjustment‐promoting link in the rehabilitation of disabled persons
Authors: Ben‐Sira Zeev 
Published: February 2004

Abstract A study among a stratified sample of Israeli disabled war veterans ascertained the contribution of ‘potency’ ‐ a recently discerned stress‐moderating link in the coping process ‐ in promoting the readaptation to social life of traumatically disabled persons. Potency reflects a combination of self‐confidence and commitment to and trust in society. The data suggest that potency is likely to weaken the deleterious impact of inadequate coping with the unprecedented demands inherent in disability. Disabled army veterans with strong potency are less likely than those with weak potency to be affected by occasional coping failures, by subjectively perceived ‘demands’, or by occasional resource deficiencies. The evident instrumentality of potency for readjustment suggests that societal and personal factors simultaneously play a significant role in readjustment.The contribution of this study is in its illumination of the importance of the disabled person's perception of society, in addition to his/her individual resources, for successful reintegration into social life.
Appealing to the ‘experience’ of the patient in the care of the dying
Authors: Peräkylä Anssi 
Published: February 2004

Abstract The care of dying patients in hospital is characterized by the co‐presence of four different frames: practical, medical, lay and psychological. Within the psychological frame, the staff define the patient as an experiencing subject, exposed to the staff members' knowledge and involvement.The psychological frame is used in two different circumstances. First, it is used by the staff members when the patient deviates from an expected identity within some other frame. The deviation creates a threat to the working conditions and moral order at the ward. The threat is managed through a shift into the psychological frame. Second, the psychological frame is used spontaneously in the accounts of their work given by staff members to the sociological field researcher. The image of care associated with the field researcher is characterized by a special awareness of the psychological issues. Thus the field researcher is inevitably a part of the functioning of the new kind of surveillance working through the psychological frame.
Masculinity, femininity and sex: an exploration of their relative contribution to explaining gender differences in health
Authors: Annandale Ellen , Hunt Kate 
Published: February 2004

AbstractThe emergence of gender as a major area of interest in medical sociology in the 1970s set an exciting agenda for future research. However, despite a growing literature, our understanding of the mechanisms linking gender and health has advanced little in recent years. This may, in part, be due to problems in conceptualising gender. In particular, despite theoretical advances, biological sex and sociological gender continue to be conflated in empirical research. In this paper we argue that sex and gender are not necessarily coincidental and that gender roles and gender role orientations may cross‐cut sex. We draw upon a recent tradition of research on gender role orientation in psychology which assesses the level of ‘bmasculinity’ and ‘femininity’ in an individual's self‐concept through identification with traditionally ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ characteristics. Considering a range of health measures we conclude that the sex (male‐female) differences that are traditionally found in research on gender and health may mask an association of ‘femininity’ with relatively poor health and ‘masculinity’ with relatively good health in both men and women.
What is genuine sickness? The relation between work‐discipline and the sick role in a pottery factory
Authors: Bellaby Paul 
Published: February 2004

AbstractFrom material gathered in the author's study of sickness and absence in a pottery factory, it is shown that genuine sickness is routinely problematic, and must be negotiated between the claimant and others in the work‐group, sometimes also management and medical practitioners. Resolutions of the problem are practical and contingent, rarely based on medical proof, actual or imagined. It transpires that gender, age and class relations in the workplace have a bearing on whether and in what terms sickness and/or absence is acceptable. The ambiguities contained in these relations and existing between discourses and techniques of power associated with work‐discipline, worker resistance and medical practice, are reproduced in the negotiation of genuine sickness.
Patient responses to benzodiazepine medication: a typology of adaptive repertoires developed by long‐term users
Authors: North Diana , Davis Peter , Powell Anne 
Published: February 2004

AbstractSince the late 1970s there has been a marked decline in the prescribing of the benzodiazepines. Yet long‐term use of this drug persists despite widespread media condemnation and growing professional concern. The study seeks to illuminate this phenomenon by deploying qualitative methods to investigate the meaning that such medication has for the users themselves and their styles of management. In‐depth interviews were conducted with fifteen community‐based users and seven members of a self‐help group. From this material a typology was developed that reflected the relationship users had formed with their medication. The key dimensions in this typology were the degree of dependency on the drug, the perceived level of risk associated with it, and underlying attitude. The relationships to the drug reflected in the typology were suggestive of a pattern of self‐regulation and active management by users, rather than dominance and control by practitioners. Furthermore, the investigation indicated that characteristics of the medication regime itself—such as type of drug and dose exert an influence on the attribution of meaning and the place of the drug in users' lives. While a characterisation of patient subculture has real potential for application in clinical practice, there are also implications within medical sociology for theories of medicalisation and social control.
Surviving psychiatric insritutionalisation: a case study
Authors: Prior Pauline M. 
Published: February 2004

AbstractThis paper looks at the impact of psychiatric hospital treatment on the life of a man who spent almost forty years in a large mental hospital in Northern Ireland. Patient behaviour and staff experience of this behaviour are examined within the conceptual framework proposed by Erving Goffman. This man's story once again challenges the notion of the all‐pervading power of the institution, and affirms the ability of some individuals to maintain a strong personal identity in spite of being officially labelled as deviants and separated from society because of this label. It also challenges the assumption that institutional living in itself, stigmatises and therefore isolates an individual from normal social networks. It is argued that in order to predict the impact of voluntary or compulsory institutionalisation, not only must the identity‐construct of the individual be considered, but also the social position of the institution within the community.
Going against the grain: smoking and ‘heavy’ drinking amongst the British middle classes
Authors: Burrows Roger , Nettleton Sarah 
Published: February 2004

AbstractThis paper examines the characteristics of those members of the British middle classes who ‘go against the grain’ of healthy living by both smoking and drinking alcohol over recommended levels. Using logistic regression procedures on GHS data, it concludes that there are significant gender differences, with men being much more likely to adopt such risky health behaviours than women. Further, the social correlates of such behaviours differ for men and women. For men, such behaviours are significantly associated with marital status, the experience of social mobility and region. For women, such behaviours are associated with the presence of dependent children, educational level and the number of hours worked in paid employment. The paper attempts some tentative interpretations of these results by drawing upon the available sociological literature.
Reneotiating identity: cancer narratives
Authors: Mathieson Cynthia M. , Stam Hendaikns J. 
Published: February 2004

AbstractWe frame the work of living with cancer as one which is identity‐altering. Interviews with a heterogeneous group of cancer patients of varying sites and stages were used to conceptualise the identity work as involving disrupted feelings of fit, renegotiating identity, and biographical work. Patient narratives reflect these categories depending on their stage of illness and their experiences in medical institutions.‘Identity work’ is used to describe the process of patients' evaluations of the meaning of their illness within the actual context of ongoing, organised social relationships, including the medical system. We discuss the implications for narrative analyses in the social sciences.
Domestic labour and health: bringing it all back home
Authors: Thomas Carol 
Published: February 2004

AbstractThis paper explores the relationship between unpaid domestic labour and health. Although the ‘informal care’ literature touches on the connection between aspects of domestic labour and health, sociologists have not engaged in a systematic analysis of the nature of this relationship. In the following discussion I examine i) the reasons why this relationship has been obscured, ii) possible ways forward in theorising the link and, iii) the under‐recognised historical contribution made by domestic labourers to the improvement in the health status of the population in industrial Britain. In relation to the latter I critically examine the widely accepted ‘McKeown thesis’ (McKeown 1979) which postulates that falling mortality rates in late 19th and early 20th century Britain can be explained not by medical intervention but by rising standards of living and improved nutrition. I argue that in the McKeown thesis, and in the work of those like David Blane (1987) who have examined it, the explanation for falling mortality rates is incomplete because it has not accounted for a then developing and expanding area of social activity, namely, domestic labour.
Socioeconomic mortality differentials in men and women according to own and spouse's characteristics in Finland
Authors: Martikainen Pekka 
Published: February 2004

AbstractThis paper compares the magnitude of differences in mortality according to own and spouse's socioeconomic characteristics and assesses the importance of cross‐classifying these characteristics. The analysis covers all 35–64 year‐old married Finnish men and women in the period 1981–85. Relative mortality rates were obtained from Poisson regression models.The analysis shows that socioeconomic mortality differentials within each sex are more or less equally large according to both own and spouse's education or occupational characteristics for a wide range of causes of death. Moreover, among both women and men cross‐classifications between own and spouse's socioeconomic status do not indicate important mortality differentials over and above those already displayed by its two separate parts, i.e. there were no important interactions between own and spouse's socioeconomic characteristics.The results call into question the argument that the mortality of married women should be analysed on the basis of their husband's socioeconomic characteristics because these characteristics better describe both spouses' socioeconomic standing and are thus more powerful predictors of men's and women's mortality than women's socioeconomic characteristics. It is further concluded that the advantages of cross‐classifying both spouses' socioeconomic characteristics in mortality analysis are very limited when these characteristics do not interact with each other.Moreover, cause‐specific comparisons between men and women showed that married women's mortality differentials by own educational as well as occupational status were roughly as large as those obtained for men. The larger total mortality differentials among men than women are mainly due to cause of death structure.
Ethnicity: not a black and white issue. A research note
Authors: Bradby Hannah 
Published: February 2004

AbstractThe dangers of using ‘race’ as an analytical concept in the sociology of health and illness are outlined, before examining how the terms ‘racism’, ‘racialisation’ and ‘ethnicity’ can be defined in order to distinguish between ethnic minorities, ethnic majorities and racialised minorities in contemporary Britain. It is argued that by using this terminology the implications for health differences between ethnic groups of racism, of cultural practices and of biological factors can be specified.
Musculoskeletal suffering: diagnosis and a variant view
Authors: Thornquist Eline 
Published: February 2004

AbstractWhat acounts as relevant and valid information in a diagnostic context? A descriptive analysis of a first encounter from physiotherapy practice provides the background for a proposed response to this question. The encounter took place between a therapist and a patient suffering from muscular tension. It exemplifies the employment of dimensions of experience and knowledge other than those ordinarily accepted by scientific medicine. Prevailing notions of the body and the traditional distinction between ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ knowledge are considered against this background. It is suggested that the tacitly accepted separation between the physical body and human experience be superseded by a new understanding. Conversely, the prevailing correlation between ‘patient/symptoms/subjectivity’ and less valid information on the one hand, and ‘clinician/signs/objectivity’ and valid information on the other, is shown to be counterproductive. Verbal and bodily information are not categorically different, belonging to the separate worlds of ‘res extensa’ and ‘res cogitans'. In real lives—and real bodies—they are complementary. It is argued that more complex interactional forms are better suited than standard diagnostic procedures to understand and deal adequately with patients’ often complex ailments.