The Sage Dictionary of Health and Society

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The Sage Dictionary of Health and Society

Kevin White

ISBN: 0-761941-16-9 2006 242 pages Sage Publications

Emily Mauldon

The project of writing a specialist dictionary is an ambitious one: not only must an author have sufficient expertise to represent accurately the disciplinary terrain, but there must also exist sufficient disciplinary consensus as to what that terrain is and how it fits within, beside and overlaps with other disciplines.

Accordingly, White has ‘attempted to show how critical medical anthropologists, sociologists, historians and philosophers of medicine use words to discuss healthcare and healing systems' (2006:vii). Part of his mapping exercise includes differentiating sociologically informed terms and concepts from those used in psychology, sociobiology and medicine. Such reference works must necessarily provide simplified, condensed accounts of terms which are often highly contested, whose meaning may change over time, and are deployed differently by various specialist subcultures.

White is a formidable player within sociology of health whose significant contribution over the past several decades has helped shape the field, particularly within Australia. As with most influential figures, he is also partisan, holding clearly and frequently expressed opinions which locate him within the contemporary critical landscape. White's intellectual biography is plainly evident within his choice of topics and definitions (as he acknowledges in the introduction), and the strengths of the dictionary parallel his own. He works present a rigorous treatment of methodological concepts, the history of sociology (including a comprehensive use of historical case studies and references), the sociology of scientific and medical knowledge, authors, and debates that contribute to an anti-realist critique of society. Those familiar with White's work will also have no difficulty picking up his scepticism towards the quantitative end of the social sciences, and his concern regarding the social organisation of medical profession and its epistemological foundations.

When writing a reference work such as a dictionary, the ability to construct accurate and non-controversial material is paramount. The vast majority of White's definitions are exactly that: informative, straightforward, concise and engaging. There is, however, the occasional term whose definition is limited or otherwise inadequate. For example, he defines ‘standpoint epistemology' as ‘A position in feminist theories of knowledge that argues the social position of the knower is embedded in what is known' (2006:204), and goes on to provide a short elaboration. Whilst it is perfectly accurate that standpoint epistemology has had a significant influence on feminism, this definition fails to acknowledge its philosophical origin in the works of Hegel, and its influence on a range of anti-hegemonic social theorises and discourses such as Marxism and post-colonialism. Unfortunately (and unfairly), these intermittent lapses left me frustrated and yearning for a more detailed and comprehensive reference work than I'm sure White ever intended this text to be.

Nonetheless, much of White's commentary combines sophisticated and well-articulated summaries which challenge a reader to think beyond the commonly used meanings of words and towards understanding how they are used by critical social theorists. His intended readers (from the humanities and social sciences), will have no trouble carrying out the intellectual manoeuvres necessary to locate his definitions within broader political, historical, and cultural debates. I am however, less confident this will also be the case for the large number of undergraduate nursing, medical or other health science students for whom sociology of health is now compulsory, or for health science academics seeking to introduce a ‘qualitative' element into their work. Further, part of the critical social science tradition is a reluctance to accept concepts at face value, emphasising instead the forces at play in stabilising the contingency of meaning. In reviewing the dictionary, this reader at least, was repeatedly struck by the paradox whereby the results of distilling the historical and cultural meaning of many terms to produce uncontroversial definitions can be surprisingly unsatisfactory. While this paradox applies to the simplified representation of most complex debates, it is particularly relevant within this work. Given the indebtedness of the sociology of health to a range of critical disciplines, and the extent to which it has been taken up within public health, nursing, medicine and public policy, the boundaries and contours of the terrain remain contested.

When exploring the wide range of professional and discipline-based dictionaries available, it is apparent that there is a sufficient gap to warrant a specialist ‘Dictionary of Health and Society'. In order to overcome this gap my strategy in the past has been to compare definitions from multiple sources in order to shed light on how terms are used differently within sociology of health compared with other disciplines. For example, how do the choice of terms and definitions provided differ between standard dictionaries of sociology, philosophy, psychology, nursing or medicine (or indeed the glossaries of introductory sociology of health texts)? In the overlaps and disjunctions between these works the educated reader can locate a satisfactory meaning. It is of course, not always possible or desirable to indulge in multiple referencing, so White's dictionary holds promise as a way of fast-tracking the process.

Another work that attempts similar coverage is Cockerham and Ritchey's (1997) Dictionary of Medical Sociology. This text concentrates more on the contemporary sociology of medicine but focuses predominantly on the North American organisation of the medical sector and traditions of sociology, with the result that some of the information covered is of limited relevance to the Australian context. White's work, with its attention to Australian terms, authors and issues, its inclusion of a broader range of historical material and attention to different theoretical schools of thought, complements rather than duplicates the Cockerham and Ritchey book. Similarly, White's text will be a valued addition to, rather than replacement for, my dusty collection of professional dictionaries.

All key terms used are referenced, which provides the reader with an opportunity to quickly identify seminal works on a topic or significant moments in an author's intellectual career. This is an excellent feature for both those entering the field, and the more experienced teacher or researcher seeking a focused exploration of a topic.

On the whole White has done an excellent job in selecting and summarising terms, concepts, debates and key figures which have shaped the contemporary sociology of health, and he has presented them clearly. There are, however, sporadic entries whose definitions I felt were unnecessarily limited. Consequently I found myself wishing that instead of reviewing a dictionary of health and society written by a single author, I was reviewing an encyclopaedia wherein multiple authors were given more latitude to undertake the same project: more latitude, that is, to expand on, and contest, the terms and definitions covered in the work.

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