Seale Clive
School of Social Sciences, Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK.
Sociol Health Illn. 2008 Jul;30(5):677-95. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9566.2008.01090.x. Epub 2008 Jun 28.
A comparative keyword analysis of the content of nine leading journals is used to suggest potential new directions for medical sociology. The major British and American journals in sociology and medical sociology tend to publish authors based in their own countries, contrasting with the internationalism of other social science disciplines relevant to health, although Sociology of Health and Illness is an exception to this. Medical sociology journals on both sides of the Atlantic focus on individual experience more than general sociology journals, which focus more on social systems levels of analysis. While journal contents reveal British medical sociology to be relatively atheoretical when compared with British general sociology journals, American medical sociology appears relatively apolitical on the same comparison with American general journals. American journals of sociology publish more quantitative studies than their British equivalents, more studies concerning race and other social divisions in American society, and less work drawing on social constructionist perspectives or that is engaged with social theory. Analysis of health and health care at societal and global levels and a deeper engagement with the political and public issues that concern non-sociologists represents a possible future for a medical sociology that is internationally relevant and outward looking.
对九种顶尖期刊的内容进行比较关键词分析，以提出医学社会学可能的新方向。英国和美国社会学及医学社会学领域的主要期刊倾向于发表本国作者的文章，这与其他与健康相关的社会科学学科的国际化形成对比，不过《健康与疾病社会学》是个例外。大西洋两岸的医学社会学期刊比一般社会学期刊更关注个体经历，而一般社会学期刊更侧重于社会系统层面的分析。与英国一般社会学期刊相比，期刊内容显示英国医学社会学相对缺乏理论性；与美国一般期刊相比，美国医学社会学在相同比较下显得相对缺乏政治性。美国社会学期刊发表的定量研究比英国同类期刊更多，涉及美国社会种族及其他社会分化的研究更多，而借鉴社会建构主义视角或涉及社会理论的研究更少。在社会和全球层面分析健康与医疗保健，并更深入地参与非社会学家关注的政治和公共问题，这代表了具有国际相关性和外向型的医学社会学的一个可能未来。
