Radical Logics and Their Carriers In Medicine: The Case of Psychopathology and American Obstetricians and Gynecologists

Establishing specialty jurisdictions in medicine: the case of American obstetrics and gynaecology

“…These definitions established who ob/gyns were in relation to others in the medical division of labour. They aimed to legitimate ob/gyn’s work jurisdictions (see Zetka 2008a, 2008b). Interest in gynaecologic oncology as ob/gyn’s surgical subspecialty developed from examining data for this larger purpose.…”

“…American Journal of Surgery , Archives of Surgery , JAMA , New England Journal of Medicine . Index Medicus, the comprehensive index of medical literature published periodically over the span of years examined here, was used to locate relevant materials (see Zetka 2008b). For this article, the relevant time‐frame begins in 1952, with the founding of the Society of Pelvic Surgeons, and ends in 1972, with the establishment of gynaecologic oncology as ob/gyn’s surgical subspecialty.…”

“…These text units were analysed using the open coding techniques of qualitative analysis (Loffland and Loffland 1995). This process involved rereading original texts, cutting units from them, comparing information in these units, coding units into increasingly refined categories, and drawing theoretical inferences from the information so categorised (see Zetka 2008b).…”

“…These definitions signal what specialty segments claim to be and what they are not. They establish foundations for new identities and solidarities (see Zetka and Walsh 1994, Zetka 2003, 2008b).…”

“…Specialties must distinguish themselves from potential competitors, and endear themselves to those they are dependent upon, in order to secure markets. To do so, they develop turf logics , or arguments for the relevance of their distinctive skills in servicing a particular market (Zetka 2003, 2008a, 2008b).…”