CULTURE AND MEANING IN HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH: AN APPLIED APPROACH [Hardcover]

Culture and Meaning in Health Services Research is a practical guide to applying interpretive qualitative methods to pressing healthcare delivery problems. A leading medical anthropologist who has spent many years working in applied healthcare settings, Sobo combines sophisticated theoretical insights and methodological rigor with authentic, real-world examples and applications. In addition to clearly explaining the nuanced practice of ethnography and guiding the reader through specific methods that can be used in focus groups or interviewing to yield useful findings, Sobo considers the social relationships and power dynamics that influence field entry, data ownership, research deliverables, and authorship decisions. Crafted to communicate the importance of culture and meaning across the many disciplines engaged in health services research, this book is ideal for courses in such fields as public health and health administration, nursing, anthropology, health psychology, and sociology.

A practical guide to applying interpretive qualitative methods to pressing healthcare delivery problems.

In this book, Sobo bridges the disciplinary divide between health and social science, demonstrating the distinct angle of thoughtful analysis that anthropological method and interpretative tradition bring to unraveling the complexities of health service systems. Recognizing that many holes within current evidentiary health knowledge pertain to interactions in which human agency plays a central role, she engages the reader in a delightful and opinionated dialogue that creatively deconstructs conventional assumptions and convincingly reveals what social theorizing contributes to understanding and solving the problems confronting health service researchers today. —Sally Thorne, Professor and Director, UBC School of Nursing

This is an intelligent and robust exploration of the unique contributions, and validity, of the anthropological approach ló@