Iatrocracy…is a perfectly good word, specially coined for the purposes of this paragraph. It comes from the Greek word for doctor, iatros, and it means government by physicians. Why not? Who is qualified to keep the world alive and in good health if not the health specialists? Let Iatrocracy have a chance to show what… Read More »
The constitutional processes are now complete and Robert F Kennedy, Jr has been confirmed as Secretary for Health and Human Services despite a vicious, and at times vitriolic, campaign waged by the biomedical and public health establishment. For more than fifty years, I have been reading work by US medical sociologists on the power and… Read More »
An editorial in the British Medical Journal has called for a reappraisal of the criticism of overtreatment by Ivan Illich, a commentator on cultural issues who had a considerable influence in the late 1960s and 1970s. My response notes that this part of Illich’s work relies on reflexive work by the medical profession itself. Focussing… Read More »
Professions and the Social Order: Some Lessons from Burkina Faso? NATÉWINDÉ SAWADOGO, University of Ouaga II ROBERT DINGWALL, Nottingham Trent University Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie Early View Article DOI: 10.1111/cars.12209 IT HAS LONG BEEN OBSERVED that the study of professions has been dominated by Anglo-American models, with their focus on a small… Read More »