Chapter 2 - Theories? Flashcards
Capitalism
An economic and social system based on the private accumulation of wealth.
Commodification of health care
Treating health care as a commodity to be bought and sold in the pursuit of profit maximization.
Deviance
Behaviour or activities that violate social expectations about what is normal.
Emotional labour
Refers to the use of feelings by employees as part of their paid work. In health care, a key part of nursing work is caring for patients, often by providing emotional support.
Feminism
broad social and political movement based on a brief in equality of the sexes and the removal of all forms of discrimination against women. A feminist is one who makes use of, and may act upon, a body of theory that seeks to explain the subordinate position of women in society
Functional prerequisites
A debated concept based on the assumption that all societies require certain functions to be performed for them to survive and maintain social order. Also known as functional imperatives.
Ideal type
A concept originally devised by Max Weber to refer to the abstract or pure features of any social phenomenon.
Institutional ethnography
A feminist research strategy associated with Dorothy Smith combining theory and method. It begins from the standpoint of people in the actualities of their everyday world to show how people’s social relations are organized by forces outside of them.
McDonaldization
A term coined by George Ritzer to expand Weber’s notion of rationalization; defined as the standardization of social life by rules and regulation, such as increased monitoring and evaluation of individual performance, akin to the uniformity and control measures used by fast-food chains. These principles are now applied to other sectors, both locally and globally.
Medical-industrial complex
The growth of profit-oriented medical companies and industries, whereby one company may own a chain of health services, such as hospitals, clinics, and radiology and pathology services.
Meta-analyses
The ‘big picture’ analysis that frames and organizes observations and research on a particular topic.
Patriarchy
system of power through which males dominate households. It is used more broadly by feminists to refer to society’s domination by patriarchal power, which functions to subordinate women and children.
Rationalization
The standardization of social life through rules and regulation.
Relations of ruling
concept used by Dorothy Smith to refer to social relations in which people are involved that dominate them, to the rational forms of knowledge that are developed, and to the organizations that administer and mange these.
Sexual division of labour
Refers to the nature or work performed as a result of gender roles. The stereotype is that of the male breadwinner and the female homemaker.
Sick role
concept used by Talcott Parsons to describe the social expectations of how sick people are expected to act and of how they are meant to be treated.
Socialization
The process of learning the culture of a society which shows us how to behave and communicate.
Social closure
term first used by Max Weber to describe the way that power is exercised to exclude outsiders from the privileges of social membership.
Social control
Mechanisms that aim to induce conformity, or at least to manage or minimize deviant behaviour.
Socialism/Communism
Socialism is a political ideology with numerous variations but generally refers to the creation of societies in which private property and wealth accumulation are replaced by state ownership and distribution of economic resources. Communism represents a vision of society based on communal ownership of resources, cooperation, and altruism to the extent that social inequality and the state no longer exists. Both terms are often used interchangeably.
Stigma
physical or social trait, such as a disability or a criminal record, that results in negative social reactions, such as discrimination and exclusion.
Theory
system of ideas that uses researched evidence to explain certain events and show why certain facts are related
Total institutions
A term used by Erving Goffman to refer to institutions, such as prisons and asylums, in which life is highly regulated and subjected to authoritarian control to induce conformity.
Verstehen
Refers to a process of interpretative and empathetic understanding.
