SOCI 6348 - Sociology of Medicine

3 hrs

Examination of the understandings and practices of medicine, health, and illness are culturally and temporally contingent. Special attention is paid to the social, cultural, politic, and economic construction of medical scientific knowledge. Social experiences of illness and disability, the ways in which structural inequalities are transformed into health disparities, the commodification of health and health care, the professionalization of medical practice, and the influence of technology on modern medical practice are explored.