The Blackwell Companion To Medical Sociology

William C. Cockerham is Professor and Chair of the Sociology Department at the University of Alabama, with dual appointments in the School of Medicine and the School of Public Health. He is the author of The Global Society (1994), The Aging Society (1996), Health and Social Change in Russia and Eastern Europe (1999), Sociology of Mental Disorder (fifth edition, 1999), and Medical Sociology (eighth edition, 2001), and co-editor of Dictionary of Medical Sociology (1997) and Readings in Medical Sociology (second edition, 2001).

List of Contributors viii

Preface xi

Part I Substantive Topics

1 Medical Sociology and Sociological Theory 3
William C. Cockerham

2 Health and Culture 23
Stella Quah

3 The Sociology of the Body 43
Sarah Nettleton

4 Health and Social Stratification 64
Eero Lahelma

5 From Women’s Health to a Gender Analysis of Health 94
Sara Arber and Hilary Thomas

6 Work Stress and Health 114
Johannes Siegrist

7 Migration, Health, and Stress 126
Judith T. Shuval

8 Health Professions and Occupations 144
Elianne Riska

9 The Convergence and Divergence of Modern Health Care Systems 159
Fred Stevens

Part II Regional Perspectives

The Americas

10 The American Health Care System: Entering the Twenty-First Century with High Risk, Major Challenges, and Great Opportunities 180
Bernice A. Pescosolido and Carol A. Boyer

11 The Evolution of Health Care in Canada: Toward Community or Corporate Control? 199
Harley D. Dickinson and B. Singh Bolaria

12 Medical Sociology in Mexico 214
Roberto Castro

13 Social Science and Health in Brazil 233
Everardo Duarte Nuñes

Western Europe

14 Medical Sociology in Great Britain 246
Ellen Annandale and David Field

15 The French Paradoxes 263
Kristina Orfali

16 Medical Sociology in Germany 287
Olaf von dem Knesebeck and Johannes Siegrist

17 Society, Health, and Health Care in Sweden 298
Örjan Hemström

Russia and Eastern Europe

18 The Russian Health Care Experiment: Transition of the Health Care System and Rethinking of Sociology of Medicine 320
Elena Dmitrieva

19 In and Out of Communism: The Macrosocial Context of Health in Poland 334
Nina Ostrowska

20 Transformation of the Health Care System in the Czech Republic – A Sociological Perspective 347
Hana Janečková

Africa

21 Health and Health Care in South Africa Against an African Background 365
H. C. J. van Rensburg and Charles Ngwena

22 Health, Health Care, and Medical Education in the Arab World 393
Eugene Gallagher

23 Health and Health Care in Israel 410
Ofra Anson

Asia and the Pacific Region

24 Medicine and Health Care in Australia 429
Deborah Lupton

25 Health, Illness, and Health Policy in Japan 441
Masahira Anesaki and Tsunetsugu Munakata

26 The Great Reversal: Transformation of Health Care in the People’s Republic of China 456
Meei-shia Chen

Index 483