This paper presents an initial analysis of the medicalization of chronic pain, focusing on the definitions and treatment of chronic pain in recent decades. We identify several factors that contributed to this medicalization including the emergence of the gate control theory of pain, medical advocates for pain treatment and speciality training, the development of multidisciplinary pain clinics, the emergence of professional pain associations, extended medical treatments, and governmental decisions and support. The increased attention to chronic pain as a discrete medical category and innovations in chronic pain treatment have contributed to the medicalization of chronic pain in ways that suggest there may be benefits to society and pain sufferers, in contrast to many other cases of medicalization.

At a time when child health is receiving considerable attention, child feeding practices are under intense scrutiny as the site for developing healthy habits and preventing childhood illness. Previous scholars of foodwork detail the various types of labor involved in feeding children, purchasing foods, researching foods, preparing appealing meals, and managing emotions around these activities. Less scholarly attention has been given to the advice directed at parents -mothers in particular -about feeding children. Our study examines parenting advice on general feeding and feeding children with food allergies published between 1991 and 2020 in a Canadian mainstream parenting magazine. We build on Arlie Hochschild's concepts of emotion work and feeling rules, demonstrating that magazines instruct parents to manage emotions to create pleasurable eating experiences for children. We conclude with implications for studies of foodwork, emotion work and childrearing.

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Researchers and policy makers overwhelmingly stress the harmonious nature of parent involvement. Researchers have focused on individual forms of parent involvement, yet collective efforts of parents in parent-teacher organizations (PTOs) are a key dynamic in schools. Drawing on a case study of an elementary school in an upper-middle-class community, we show that very high levels of parent involvement led to many conflicts. There were three main sources of these routine conflicts. Parents and educators had different priorities-parents favored a warm, friendly, and nonbureaucratic environment while the principal favored an orderly, safe, and bureaucratic environment. There were battles over authority, particularly over the planning of events. And finally, the PTO was a volunteer organization with high levels of turnover, weak lines of communication, and minimal training. This case study suggests the need to reconceptualize our models of family involvement in schooling.