Description
The contribution of the German sociologist and philosopher Jurgen Habermas has proved seminal for attempts to understand the nature of social change in the context of global capitalism. This book provides an accessible introduction to his work and shows how his theories can be fruitfully applied to a wide range of topics in the sociology of health and illness including:
* lay health knowledge
* doctor-patient interaction
* health care decision-making
* health inequalities
* new social movements in health
* health care rationing
* the Foucault perspective.
Habermas, Critical Theory and Health will open up both new issues and new lines of empirical enquiry which will be of special interest to teachers and students of social theory and the sociology of health and illness and offers healthcare professionals new perspectives on their practice.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Unfolding Themes of an Incomplete Project 2. Lay Health Knowledge and the Concept of the Lifeworld 3. System, Lifeworld and Doctor-patient Interaction: Issues of Trust in a Changing World 4. Health Care Decision-making and the Politics of Health 5. Class, Power and the Durability of Health Inequalities 6. New Social Movements in the Health Domain 7. Finite Resources and Infinite Demand: Public Participation in Health Care Rationing 8. Habermas of Foucault, or Habermas and Foucault? The implications of a Shifting Debate for Medical Sociology 9. Civil Society, the Public Sphere and Deliberative Democracy
