Promoting sociology in Australia
Facilitating sociology teaching and research
Enhancing the professional development of TASA members

Sociological Research

The Sociological Research page was created as a research tool for TASA members. From a call for specific information or a request for research participants to having your research findings available online, you can contact the TASA office and the executive officers will organise for your research details to be listed below.

 

Call for Papers

Social Science & Medicine

Special Issue

 

Sociology of Diagnosis: Negotiation, mediation and contingency

 

Guest Editors

Annemarie Jutel and Sarah Nettleton

 

Social Science and Medicine is calling for papers for a special issue on the sociology of diagnosis to be guest edited by Annemarie Jutel and Sarah Nettleton.  Papers may focus on diagnosis as classification or as process; on professional or lay-diagnosis; on the micro and macro levels of diagnosis; or on any other aspect of the social framing or consequences of diagnosis.

 

This special issue will provide the opportunity to crystallise discussions and forge an innovative strand of work within the sociology of health and illness, and engage pertinent sociological questions such as:

  • What constitutes a diagnosis?
  • How is diagnosis negotiated within the clinic?
  • How do structural variables such as gender, ‘race,’ age, and class permeate the diagnostic process?
  • What are the social and experiential consequences of ‘expert’ and ‘lay’ diagnoses?
  • How do lay people identify and communicate diagnoses?
  • How, and/or to what extent, do market forces contribute to the fabrication and dissemination of a diagnostic category?
  • To what extent are diagnoses contested, challenged and or politicised?
  • What are the drivers and the consequences of innovations in diagnostic and predictive technologies?
  • Will diagnosis have a different place within the surveillance medicine of an increasingly risk-based social context?

 

The deadline for submission is 30th June 2010 and papers should be submitted here http://ees.elsevier.com/ssm/. When asked to choose an Article Type, authors should stipulate “Special Issue Article”, and in the ‘Enter Comments’ box the title of the Special Issue should be inserted, plus any further acknowledgements. All submissions must meet the Social Science & Medicine guide for authors which can be found on the above website.

 

If you have any questions, please contact either Annemarie Jutel on ajutel@vodafone.co.nz or Sarah Nettleton on sjn2@york.ac.uk.

 

Teaching Sociology in Australia - A Report to the Australian Learning and Teaching Council

Project Team - Dr Helen Marshall, Dr Peter Robinson, A/Prof John Germov and Eileen Clark

‘The aims of this project were to gain an overview of the extent and nature of sociology teaching in Australian universities and some understanding of the most pressing issues faced by teachers’. The research ‘findings led to seven recommendations for consideration by the TASA executive…’. For a full copy of the report, click here.

Australian Sociology and History: Call for Materials and Memories

With the full support of The Australian Sociological Association, Dr Fran Collyer is conducting research into the history of Australian Sociology and seeking to record the achievements and contributions of Australian sociologists.  For full details, click here.

Invitation: all health sociologists

Dr Fran Collyer is also researching the history of the output of Australian researchers in health and medicine and would like to investigate contributions that were presented at conferences. For full details, click here.