Thomas, Gareth M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4959-2337 2023. Disability and the sociology of health and illness. Petersen, Alan, ed. Handbook on the Sociology of Health and Medicine, Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 378-392. (10.4337/9781839104756.00033) |
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Abstract
In this chapter, I provide an overview of disability as a category of analysis in the sociology of health and illness. I begin by discussing the lack of dialogue between medical sociology and disability studies. Both disciplines co-exist, yet there are few interdisciplinary exchanges that recognise their associated intersections and inconsistencies. From here, I outline three topics that offer opportunities for merging concepts, ideas, and sentiments from both disciplines. First, I capture how attending to the individual and structural properties of stigma unites concerns of both medical sociologists and disability studies scholars. Second, I show how we can further ponder this disciplinary relationship by considering matters of care, both inside and outside of health and social care services. Third, I recognise the value of medical sociology and disability studies for understanding the COVID-19 pandemic, both in terms of its disproportionate impact on disabled people and its illumination of a troubling history of hostility and indifference to disability. In so doing, I contend that disability aligns with central and longstanding points of interest within sociology, in ways which merit more theoretical and empirical attention.
Item Type: | Book Section |
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Date Type: | Publication |
Status: | Published |
Schools: | Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education) |
Subjects: | H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HM Sociology |
Publisher: | Edward Elgar Publishing |
ISBN: | 9781839104749 |
Date of First Compliant Deposit: | 4 November 2022 |
Last Modified: | 15 Apr 2024 14:22 |
URI: | https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/153982 |
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