A small group of devoted,
internationally active scientists involved in socio-medical
research initiated the foundation of European Society of
Medical Sociology (ESMS) in the early 1980ies. Two
outstanding founding members were Magdalena Sokolowska,
professor of medicine from Warsaw, and Raymond Illsley, the
former director of the Medical Sociology Research Unit in
Scotland. They had both close links with the European office
of WHO at a time when the "Health for All 2000" – programme
opened the door for sociological expertise and advice.
At a Social Science and Medicine
Meeting in Sterling 1983, the society was already
established, with Magdalena Sokolowska as President, Raymond
Illsley as Secretary, and Ivo Nuyens from Leuven, Jesus de
Miguel from Barcelona, and Johannes Siegrist from Marburg as
Committee Members. Importantly, a newly appointed WHO Euro
staff member, Per Gunnar Svensson from Karlstad, Sweden,
entered the scene, and, together with Raymond, organized the
first real event of ESMS, a meeting on social inequities in
health, held in Copenhagen in December 1984. Some 20
participants, mostly medical sociologists from different
European countries, provided national reports on the topic,
and these proceedings were subsequently edited by Per Gunnar
and Raymond ("The Health Burden of Social Inequities").
Thus, the society's founding activity
was devoted to one of the core topics of our discipline,
linking medical sociological research with policy. The close
links between ESMS and the WHO Euro –organization which were
of critical importance for the survival of an extremely
fragile association of academics from different parts of
Europe did not receive unanimous approval. In the beginning,
several colleagues were afraid of the WHO's dominating role,
but later this concern vanished.
Since 1986 the society held regular
bi-annual conferences. In addition a newsletter was provided
to the members (at least since 1988), and the first ESMS
summer school was realised in 1989 in Siguenza, Spain, under
the leadership of David McQueen and Johannes Siegrist. The
early bi-annual conferences were attended by an impressive
international scholarship, for instance in Zagreb (1988),
Marburg (1990) and Edinburgh (1992). During the early 90ies
the society's name was changed into "European Society of
Health and Medical Sociology" (ESHMS) to indicate a broader
frame of analysing the societal dimension of health, a
development that was enhanced at the Vienna Conference
(1992).
At the Budapest Meeting (1996) the
first ESHMS award was given to George W. Brown, followed by
a awards given to Margot Jefferys (Rennes 1998), Johannes
Siegrist (Bologna 2004) and Judith Shuval (Krakow 2006).
The short history of ESHMS reflects
both the innovative potential of a European community of
social scientists who are devoted to the study of
sociological aspects of health and medicine, and the fragile
institutional structure of an academic discipline whose
members belong to different organizations, professional
backgrounds, and academic networks. It is hoped that the
enthusiasm of the founding period stimulates the society's
future growth and achievements.
PS: In the ESHMS Newsletter vol.
11,no. 1, 1998, Raymond Illsley has published his highly
valuable personal impressions and reflections on "The Early
Origins of the ESHMS".
