Professions and the Public Interest - 9780415018050

Taylor & Francis

Professions and the Public InterestMedical Power, Altruism and Alternative Medicine\nAuthor(s): Mike Saks\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd, United Kingdom\nImprint: Routledge\nISBN-13: 9780415018050, 978-0415018050\nSynopsis\nThe importance and influence of professions in public life has grown increasingly over the twentieth century but the question of whether they subordinate their own self-interests to the public interest has yet to be adequately researched within a major sociological perspective. In Professions and the Public Interest Mike Saks develops a theoretical and methodological framework for assessing professional groups in Western society. The empirical applicability of this framework is demonstrated with particular reference to a novel case study of the response of the medical profession to acupuncture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.\n\nProfessions and the Public Interest will be of great interest to all lecturers and students of social p.