Durkheim’s socioeconomic hypothesis of suicide has been a popular theory to test for sociologists. However the results have been mixed, offering very little cumulative sociological knowledge. Previous theory and research have found that there are contradictory results in the direction of the income regression coefficients used to study the relationship between income and suicide rates depending on if a time-series or a cross-sectional approach has been used. It has been hypothesised that the contradictory results are caused by a specification bias, namely failing to account for lagged income, which is influencing the direction of the regression coefficients. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of income on the Swedish municipalities’ suicide rates by replicating a study published in The American Journal of Sociology by Carl B. Barnes from 1975, in which he argued that the effect of income on the suicide rate is always negative. This cross-sectional analysis is based on municipality data on male, female and overall suicide in 2002 to 2004 from the Swedish Centre for National Prevention of Suicide and Mental Ill-Health at Karolinska Institutet among the working-age population (25-64 years). Control variables are the hypothesised lagged variable causing the specification bias, education, and three other possible contributing factors to suicide; unemployment, alcohol consumption and divorce. The results of the correlation and regression coefficients show that there is a negative effect of income on suicide for those aged 25 to 64 years when the other variables are held constant for both sexes; however the male results are not statistically significant. These results speak against the socioeconomic hypothesis of suicide, but generally confirm earlier findings of a negative relationship between median income and suicide. Low education is positively related to the suicide rate for males but there is no such relationship for female suicide. The findings also confirm alcohol consumption as an important factor in explaining the suicide rate. Unemployment and divorce show mixed results for the male and female suicide rates. The female unemployment rates are negatively related to suicide while male unemployment rates are not significant, on the other hand the divorce rates show a strong positive association with the female suicide rate and a negative association with the male suicide rate.

Initiée dans les années 1960, la radiologie interventionnelle comprend les actes médicaux invasifs ayant pour but le traitement ou le diagnostic d’une pathologie réalisés sous guidage ou sous contrôle d’un moyen d’imagerie. L’enjeu de la thèse est de développer l’analyse sociohistorique de l’émergence d’une spécialité médicale – la radiologie interventionnelle – et d’en étudier les stratégies de légitimation. Trois axes d’investigation interdépendants sont plus particulièrement privilégiés. Le premier d’entre eux vise à comprendre comment est née cette pratique médicale en établissant l’archéologie des innovations dont elle résulte. Dans le deuxième, il s’agit d’analyser les stratégies de valorisation et les modes de faire-valoir de la radiologie interventionnelle. Les velléités d’autonomisation des radiologues interventionnels les ont ainsi conduits à mobiliser différents registres de légitimité (légitimité scientifique, légitimité professionnelle dans le champ médical, légitimité régulatoire). Le troisième axe permet quant à lui la prise en compte de la question de la démarcation sociale et des frontières. Étant porteuse d’une transgression de la dichotomie établie entre sphères diagnostique et thérapeutique, la radiologie interventionnelle a de fait entraîné une reconfiguration des relations entre spécialités. L’investigation s’appuie sur une méthodologie plurielle combinant entretiens semidirectifs, observations in situ (bloc opératoire, scanner, réunions de concertation pluridisciplinaire, consultations) et exploitation de données scientométriques. Une mise en perspective internationale avec la situation canadienne permet d’étudier l’impact des contextes nationaux sur la diffusion et la reconnaissance de la radiologie interventionnelle. / Introduced in the 1960s, interventional radiology includes invasive medical procedures for the treatment or diagnosis of a pathology performed under the guidance or control of an imaging device. The aim of the thesis is to develop the sociohistorical analysis of the emergence of a medical specialty – interventional radiology – and to study its legitimization strategies. Three interdependent lines of inquiry are privileged in particular. The first aims to understand how this medical practice was born by establishing the archaeology of the innovations that gave rise to it. In the second, it is a question of analyzing the strategies of valorization and the ways of valuing interventional radiology. The interventional radiologists’ desire for independence has led them to mobilize different registers of legitimacy (scientific legitimacy, professional legitimacy in the medical field, regulatory legitimacy). The third line of inquiry allows for the issue of social demarcation and boundaries to be taken into account. As it is a means of transgressing the established dichotomy between the diagnostic and therapeutic spheres, interventional radiology has in fact led to a reconfiguration of the relations between specialties. The investigation is based on a methodology combining semi-directive interviews, in situ observations (operating theater, multidisciplinary consultation meetings, consultations) and the use of scientometric data. An international perspective on the Canadian situation makes it possible to study the impact of national contexts on the dissemination and recognition of interventional radiology.

<p>This dissertation, broadly, examines how power dynamics manifest during clinical interactions related to vague and gendered medical symptoms, such as pelvic pain. To examine this issue, I approach my research questions through multiple methods including a critical discourse analysis of the medical discourse on pelvic pain, a survey experiment administered to healthcare workers in the US, and a narrative analysis of pelvic pain patient experiences. While the focus of this research is on pelvic pain, the analyses presented here reach far beyond ideas of power dynamics and pelvic pain. Rather, the findings from this research speak to theoretical discussions medical sociologists have been having for decades. Specifically, findings provide new insight on: 1) the limits of evidence-based medicine as a biomedical paradigm, 2) how fundamental causes of health inequality intersect with each other as well as other factors, such as gender, important in predicting health outcomes and 3) how discussions of metamechanisms in fundamental cause theory can inform our understanding of the accumulation of cultural health capital. In providing such insight, this dissertation uses the case of pelvic pain to integrate multiple perspectives and theories in medical sociology to drive the field forward in a way that acknowledges the many ways power is simultaneously constituted in the clinical interaction. From the role of gender, race, and class in power relations, to the ways medical knowledge, discourse, and authority dictate the clinical interaction, this research covers a wide range of sociological theories and concepts. In doing so, this dissertation sheds new light on current understandings of power in the clinical interaction and its relationship to inequitable health outcomes in the US.</p>