tailieunhanh - Professions and the public interest Medical power, altruism and alternative medicine

In popular usage the term ‘profession’ has a wide variety of connotations, spanning from a highly skilled and specialized job to any fulltime work from which income is derived (Freidson 1986). The boundaries of interpretation are narrower in sociology, but sociologists have also still to reach agreement about the meaning of the term ‘profession’ and the related question of which occupations are to count as professions. However, despite the absence of an unequivocal definition (Abbott 1988), most sociologists have for long acknowledged the growing importance of professions in Western industrial societies in the twentieth century. Millerson (1964), for instance, notes that roughly two dozen new qualifying associations were formed. | Professions and the Public Interest Medical power altruism and alternative medicine Mike Saks Also available as a printed book see title verso for ISBN details Professions and the public interest Do professions subordinate their own self-interests to the public interest In Professions and the Public Interest Mike Saks develops a theoretical and methodological framework for investigating this question which has yet to be analysed adequately by sociologists of the professions. The framework outlined here will be invaluable in future research on the professions. To demonstrate how this innovative framework can be applied Mike Saks focuses on health care and presents a case study of the response of the medical profession to acupuncture in nineteenth and twentieth century Britain. He argues that the predominant climate of medical rejection of acupuncture as a form of alternative medicine has not only run counter to the public interest but also been heavily influenced by professional self-interest. He considers the implications of the case study for the accountability of the medical profession and makes broad recommendations about the direction of future research into this academically and politically important issue. Professions and the Public Interest will be of interest to a wide readership including sociologists of the professions and health care and teachers and students of social policy politics social history and medical sociology. It will also appeal to orthodox health care professionals and to practitioners of alternative medicine. Mike Saks is Professor and Head of the School of Health and Life Sciences at De Montfort University Leicester. Professions and the public interest Medical power altruism and alternative medicine Mike Saks London and New .