Colonizing the Mind: Dilemmas in the Application of Social Science

Abstract

Health economists see their practice as the application of economics to the field of human health. One of the forms that the practical application of health economics takes is the attempt to persuade professionals in health care to accept and implement economists' recommendations for changes in their practice. This paper examines one such attempt by means of a detailed textual analysis of `The Essentials of Health Economics', a major series of articles written for doctors by two leading health economists. The `dilemma of application' faced by these authors is that if they are to persuade doctors to accept the positive benefits of economics, they must also persuade doctors to accept deficiencies in their current practice. This dilemma encourages the use of textual strategies such as `avoiding confrontation' and `criticism without offence'. This kind of rhetoric of application is seen to stem from the authors' skilful deployment of two distinct, though intertwined, programmes for health economics - namely, the `strong' and the `weak'.