Summary
Contents
Subject index
George Ritzer is one of the leading social and cultural commentators of the present day. In this essential new book he considers some of the main tendencies in contemporary social theory. Included here are Ritzer's latest reflections on the uses and misuses of metatheory. According to Ritzer, sociology is a multiparadigm science. The differences and intensities of rivalries between paradigms are often very confusing for students and even for professional sociologists. This book seeks to find a way out of the confusion by sketching out the lineaments of a new integrated sociological paradigm and demonstrates how this paradigm can be applied. It shows the various ways in which Ritzer has developed rationalization theory to shed light on professional integration, the shape of consumer culture, hyperrationality and the state of sociology today.
Rationalization and Deprofessionalization of Physicians
Rationalization and Deprofessionalization of Physicians
Sociological theories are often discussed in their own terms in isolation from social changes. While these discussions can be useful, it is important that such theories be linked to the changing social world. The objective in this chapter is to take major components of the Weberian theory of rationalization and apply them to contemporary changes in and around the paradigmatic profession – physicians. As we will see, the application of rationalization theory allows us to gain new insight into what is happening to the medical profession.
The widely known and extremely important developments affecting the medical profession include antitrust decisions, corporatization, conglomeration, bureaucratization, technological change, unionization, and the rise of McDoctors (no-appointment, walk-in medical facilities modeled after ...
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