Modern Medicine: Lay Perspectives and Experiences

Abstract

Ed Simon J Williams, Michael Calnan UCL Press, £13.95, pp 270 ISBN 1 85728 318 X In their preface to Modern Medicine the authors state that it is clear that critical changes are occurring in “'late' modernity” which have implications for the place of modern medicine, professional power, and the relationship between health professionals and lay people. The examples they give include “the increasingly technologized nature of modern medicine,” the fragmentation of medical knowledge, and the role of the mass media. Against this background the book's contributors discuss several key questions, each chapter being based on qualitative research …