While Parsons’ theory of the sick role has been widely criticized, the alternatives that have been proposed are inadequate. Here subject positions theory is put forward as a viable approach to analysing medical encounters, which combines the advantages of sick role theory with those of its competitors. The approach is demonstrated through ethnographic material taken from a post-structural feminist praxis research project involving a midwife researcher and teenage mothers. This shows that actors move through a variety of subject positions in negotiating medical encounters. While subject positions theory provides a powerful new way of analysing these encounters, it is not yet clear how it can be used to challenge medical dominance.
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