Читать книгу The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Medical Sociology - Группа авторов - Страница 30

The twentieth century ended with new social realities causing both sociology and medical sociology to adjust and consider new theoretical orientations, as well as adapt older ones to account for the changes. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, sociology’s three once dominant theoretical perspectives – structural, functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interaction – were dead or on life support as “zombie theories” with a minimum of life (Ritzer and Yagatich 2012:105). The new theories and concepts in medical sociology that emerged in medical sociology suggest a shift away from a past focus on methodological individualism (in which the individual is the primary focus of analysis) toward a growing utilization of theories with a structural orientation as seen in (Cockerham 2013a, 2013b). Some built on the work of the classical theorists, such as health lifestyle theory and critical theory, while others take a different direction.