Social Theory and Nursing

Despite noteworthy exceptions, nursing's literature largely disregards the ways in which social and sociological theory permeates, guides and shapes research, education, and practice. Likewise, social theory's ability to position nursing within wider structures of healthcare and educational provision is similarly and puzzlingly downplayed. The questions nurses ask and the problems they face cannot however, adequately be addressed without engaging with social and sociological theory and, to progress this engagement, contributors to this book explore how social theories are used by and might apply to nursing and nursing practice. The book draws on a wide range of perspectives - philosophical, theoretical, empirical and political - to offer a robust and wide-ranging critique and analysis. Social Theory and Nursing is essential reading for nursing researchers, academics and educators, as well as scholars and researchers in medical sociology, medicine and allied health.

Martin Lipscomb is Senior Lecturer in the Institute of Health & Society at the University of Worcester. He is widely published on social theory and research methodology in nursing, including two books, A Hospice in Change: Applied Social Realist Theory (Routledge, 2013) and Exploring Evidence-Based Practice: Debates and Challenges in Nursing (Routledge, 2015).

Foreword Introduction 1. Nursing Theory, Social Theory and Nursing Practice 2. Mechanistic Social Science and Middle Range Theory 3. Sociological Theory in Nursing Literature: A Threat to Professional Identity? 4. Lies, Damned Lies and Stories: Nursing and the Need for Border Controls 5. The Purpose and Scope of Social Theory: Implications for Nursing 6. Critical Realism: A Perspective Worthy of Consideration 7. Foucault, Social Theory and Nursing Research: A Critique 8. Accounting for Knowledgeable Practice 9. C Wright Mills: Lessons for Nurse Researchers 10. Feminist Theories: Silences and Absences 11. Contemporary Political Debates, Social Theory and Nursing Practice in Mental Healthcare 12. Triangulation, Sociological Theory and Nursing 13. Genre and the Nursing Research Article