Reflections on the Health Social Sciences—Then and Now

After its beginnings in the United States, medical sociology started to take hold in Germany in 1958 with a conference that resulted in the first book on medical sociology published in Germany. From uneasy marginality, the field has grown to include disciplines other than sociology--anthropology, economics, and political economy. Today, the field might best be called the "health social sciences." The main body of work employs the consensual perspective, but work done using a class conflict perspective is increasingly significant.