Overview

Editor:

Evan Willis
School of Social Science, La Trobe University, VIC

Medical Dominance The Division of Labour in Australian Health Care (Evan Willis, 1983; 1989 revised edition, oop) argued against a 'technological determinist' explanation for the existing division of labour in Australian health care. Instead it argued that 'hierarchy preceded technology' with the medical profession achieving its dominance over the Australian health system by the 1930s, and that it has defended this dominance against other health care occupations since (Latrobe Media Release, 2003).

In 2003, TASA members nominated Medical Dominance in the top 10 books published since 1963 that most profoundly shaped Australian sociological scholarship. Publishing in late 2006 as Medical Dominance Revisited (ISBN 0-9757422-6-4), this comprehensive special issue of Health Sociology Review reviews almost 20 years of literature since first revision, then revisits, updates and expands Medical Dominance in eight chapters of invited papers from international experts.

It is designed as an international update with comparative papers from the US, UK, Canada, Europe and Scandinavia with a conclusion on global implications of medical dominance.

Table of Contents

Introduction: taking stock of medical dominance - Evan Willis

Medical dominance then and now: critical reflections - David Coburn

Medical dominance in a changing world: the UK case - Judith Allsop

Disciplining the medical profession? Implications of patient choice for medical dominance - Mike Dent

Beyond decline: consumerism, managerialism and the need for a new medical professionalism - Willem Tousijn

Collaborative health care teams in Canada and the USA: Confronting the structural embeddedness of medical dominance - Ivy Lynn Bourgeault and Gillian Mulvale

Reflections on the centrality of power in medical sociology: An empirical test and theoretical elaboration - Alex

Broom The (im)possibilities of clinical democracy - Debbi Long, Rowena Forsyth, Rick Iedema and Katherine Carroll

Emerging from the shadow of medicine: allied health as a 'profession community' subculture - Rosalie Boyce