SOC 320 - Health, Medicine, and Justice

3 Credits

This course is an introduction to the Sociology of Medicine. The Sociology of Medicine is centered around the theme that health and illness cannot be understood by simply looking at biological phenomena and medical knowledge. Rather, it is also necessary to situate health and illness in the larger political, cultural, economic, and social forces within a society. The course will be divided into three sections: the social construction of health and illness, the structure of the American health care system, and the medical profession and medical ethics. Special emphasis will be place on the role of environmental factors in these three areas.
Prerequisites: SOC 111 and junior standing