" To meet today's health care challenges we must bring the methods and analytic skills and passions of medical anthropology into health service settings. Elisa Sobo boldly shows the way. Writing in an engaging and direct style, she argues the importance of meaning in hospitals and health care, clarifies what anthropologists do in such settings, and offers straightforward and sensible guidance about methods and everyday practice. In doing so, Sobo provides compelling reasons for health care providers to want anthropologists, and will inspire anthropologists and their students to take up the opportunities. "
- Lenore Manderson, School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Monash University
" Sobo provides health professionals and social scientists with a lifetime of real-world lessons aptly illustrating the added value and challenges of employing anthropologically informed qualitative methods in health service research in clinical settings. This highly engaging and very readable how-to book makes a compelling case for why this type of research is necessary and what it takes to get it done in busy clinical environments where researchers must maneuver carefully and be attentive to a system undergoing constant change. Notably, Sobo addresses the contexts in which research results are released and speaks to the power of teaching stories and translational research in a field largely guided by audit culture. The book is timely and speaks to both health social science and health care audiences. "
- Mark Nichter, University of Arizona
"This is an intelligent and robust exploration of the unique contributions, and validity, of the anthropological approach to health services research. Sobo clearly demonstrates that to fully understand human beliefs and behavior in relation to health, not all phenomena can be reduced to mere numbers and statistics. A more nuanced, eclectic approach is needed, and for that reason I strongly recommend this book."
- Cecil Helman, MD, Author of Culture, Health and Illness
"In this book, Sobo bridges the disciplinary divide between health and social science, demonstrating the distinct angle of thoughtful analysis that anthropological method and interpretative tradition bring to unraveling the complexities of health service systems. Recognizing that many holes within current evidentiary health knowledge pertain to interactions in which human agency plays a central role, she engages the reader in a delightful and opinionated dialogue that creatively deconstructs conventional assumptions and convincingly reveals what social theorizing contributes to understanding and solving the problems confronting health service researchers today."
- Sally Thorne, Professor and Director, UBC School of Nursing