Sociological imperialism and the profession of medicine revisited: where are we now?

This paper revisits Strong's thesis of 'sociological imperialism' some 20 years on in order to assess its relevance to present day developments within and beyond the sociology of health and illness. The thesis, it is suggested, continues to raise a number of key sociological issues of more or less abiding importance, particularly in the light of recent Foucauldian and postmodern critiques of medicine, the body and disease. This in turn paves the way for a further series of critical reflections on the limits of constructionism in particular and the dilemmas of the sociological enterprise in general. Revisiting these issues from time to time, it is concluded, is indeed an instructive exercise: a reminder perhaps, welcome or otherwise, of the limits of our own disciplinary claims on the world and our place within it.