Wilkin Peter
School of Social Sciences, Brunel University, Uxbridge UB8 3PH, UK.
Sociol Health Illn. 2009 Jan;31(1):35-50. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9566.2008.01111.x.
The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between the mass production of furniture in modern industrial societies and lower back pain (LBP). The latter has proven to be a major cost to health services and private industry throughout the industrialised world and now represents a global health issue as recent WHO reports on obesity and LBP reveal. Thus far there have been few co-ordinated attempts to deal with the causes of the problem through public policy. Drawing upon a range of sources in anthropology, health studies, politics and economics, the paper argues that this a modern social problem rooted in the contingent conjuncture of natural and social causal mechanisms. The key question it raises is: what are the appropriate mechanisms for addressing this problem? This paper develops an analysis rooted in libertarian social theory and argues that both the state and the capitalist market are flawed mechanisms for resolving this problem. There remains a fundamental dilemma for libertarians, however. Whilst the state and the market may well be flawed mechanisms, they are the dominant ones shaping global political economy. To what extent can libertarians work within these structures and remain committed to libertarian goals?
本文旨在探讨现代工业社会中家具大规模生产与下背痛（LBP）之间的关系。事实证明，下背痛已成为工业化世界中医疗服务和私营企业的一项主要成本，而且正如世界卫生组织最近关于肥胖和下背痛的报告所显示的那样，它如今已成为一个全球性的健康问题。到目前为止，通过公共政策来解决该问题根源的协同尝试寥寥无几。本文借鉴了人类学、健康研究、政治学和经济学等一系列领域的资料，认为这是一个植根于自然和社会因果机制偶然结合的现代社会问题。它提出的关键问题是：解决这个问题的适当机制是什么？本文开展了一项基于自由意志主义社会理论的分析，并认为国家和资本主义市场都是解决这一问题的有缺陷的机制。然而，自由意志主义者仍然面临一个基本困境。虽然国家和市场很可能是有缺陷的机制，但它们却是塑造全球政治经济的主导机制。自由意志主义者在这些结构内开展工作并仍致力于自由意志主义目标的程度能有多大？
