Professies en de tijd

Samenvatting

Three works that have addressed the relationship between general and medical sociology in a meaningful way are discussed, focusing on the development of medical professions as described from a historical perspective. In a general sense, Talcott Parsons is commended as one of the first authors to emphasize the social nature of disease, especially in The Social System (1968). Regarding the development of medical professions, Eliot Freidson's Profession of Medicine (1970), in which the structural and cultural dominance of the medical profession in the field of health care is analyzed from a historical point of view, and Michel Foucault's work, notably Naissance de la clinique ([The Birth of the Clinic] 1963), in which the 18th-century transition from a medical science of pathology to a more profession-based medical science of social space is described, are deemed noteworthy. Main differences between Freidson's and Foucault's analyses, eg, the role of the state and the potential role of historical approaches, are indicated. It is concluded that, although the amount of interdisciplinary sociological and historical research has increased in recent decades, the sociology of the professions needs more impulses. 9 References. S. Paul