 This book, adapted from a series
of articles published in the International Journal of Pharmacy Practice,
seeks to address the paucity
of sociologically informed research undertaken within pharmacy. The authors
outline a number of sociological theories and perspectives pertinent
to health care and illustrate their potential to inform pharmacy practice
in general and practice research in particular. To this end, the contributions
of selected key theorists such as Marx, Parsons and Foucault are described,
alongside reflections on the significance to pharmacy of factors such
as feminism, ethnicity, risk and professional identity.
The book is well-written and up-to-date. Many of the theories described
will be unfamiliar to pharmacists who have been educated according to
bio-scientific principles. However, the authors have achieved an admirable
balance between making the text intellectually challenging, yet readable.
My only minor criticism is that while most chapters usefully end with
sections describing how a particular sociological perspective might be
applied to pharmacy research, these are entitled “Relevance to
pharmacy practice research”. In this, the authors seem to sell
their project short. The entire book’s contents are highly pertinent
to practice researchers, providing a resource for those seeking to explore
aspects of practice and generate new insights by the application of sociological
theorising to pharmacists’ professional activities. As such, I
would recommend it to any such researcher seeking to include a sociological
perspective in their studies.
Kevin Taylor
|
The
Pharmaceutical Journal