Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Professor Carl May
Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.
The encounter between professional and patient is one of the basic units of analysis in the field of 'medical' sociology. From the very beginnings of the sociological investigation of medical practice it has been conceived as a dyadic encounter, defined by asymmetries of power, the negotiation of rational and authoritative scientific knowledge, and private, proximal, 7 relations; This article argues for a more dynamic theoretical vision of the clinical encounter: one that shifts attention away from a Parson ian 'Paradgm' of professional-patient interaction towards a perspective that incorporates the systemic change's that late modernity brings to medicine. The, clinical encounter is no longer the dyadic System envisaged by Parsons, and his theoretical perspective which has played an important part in framing sociological accountsV the-practice of medicine - now needs to,be reframed in relation to the organizing impulses of contemporary corporate professional practice.
Author(s): May C
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Sociology
Year: 2007
Volume: 41
Issue: 1
Pages: 29-45
ISSN (print): 0038-0385
ISSN (electronic): 1469-8684
Publisher: Sage Publications
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0038038507072282
DOI: 10.1177/0038038507072282
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
