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Staff profile

staff list  BackMs Sarah Cant

  • Job title: Principal Lecturer
  • Dept: Applied Social Sciences
  • Tel: 01227 782145
  • Campus: Canterbury
Photo of Dr Sarah Cant 

Principal Lecturer

Programme Director, Sociology and Social Science

BA (Durham), MSc (Royal Holloway & Bedford New College).

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Teaching Responsibilities:

Sarah teaches across the whole undergraduate Sociology and Social Science Programme and provides specialist modules on: contemporary social theory; the sociology of health and illness; and the sociology of the body.

Research Interests:

After graduating, Sarah worked on a number of research projects at the Universities of Kent and Keele and developed an interest in health care that stands outside state provision, namely the private sector and complementary and alternative medicines. In particular, Sarah has developed an interest in the processes of professionalisation, focusing on questions of power and legitimacy. Her most recent funded research work in this area has centered on the use of CAM by nurses and midwives. Additionally, Sarah has developed a research interest in teaching and learning in Higher Education. This dovetails with her role as Widening Participation, Recruitment and Retention Officer for the Faculty of Social and Applied Sciences.

Books

  • Cant, S. & Sharma, U. (1999) A new medical Pluralism? Alternative Medicine, Doctors, Patients and the State. London: UCL Press
  • Cant, S. & Sharma, U. (1996) (eds) Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Knowledge in Practice. London: Free Association Books
  • Calnan, M,. Cant, S. & Gabe, J. (1993) Going Private. Why people pay for their health care. Milton Keynes: Open University Press

Selected articles

  • Cant, S. & Watts, P. (2007) Knowledge or Imagination? The challenges widening participation poses for the teaching of sociology. Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, 9(2),6-16
  • Cant, S. & Sharma, U. (1998) Reflexivity in research on professions. Sociological Review, 46(2), 244-264
  • Cant, S. & Sharma, U. (1996) The professionalisation of complementary medicine in the UK. Complementary Therapies in Medicine, Summer Edition, 4(3) July 1996, 157-162
  • Cant, S. & Sharma, U. (1996) Demarcation and transformation within homoeopathic knowledge. A strategy of professionalisation. Social Science and Medicine, 42 (4), 579-588
  • Cant, S. & Sharma, U. (1995) The reluctant profession. Homoeopathy and the search for legitimacy. Work, Employment and Society, 9(4), 743-762
  • Cant, S. & Calnan, M. (1992) Using private health insurance. A study of lay decisions to seek professional medical help. Sociology of Health and Illness, 14(1), 39-57
  • Cant, S. & Calnan, M. (1991) On the margins of the medical market place. An exploratory study of alternative practitioners’ perceptions. Sociology of Health and Illness, 13(1), 39-57

Selected chapters

  • Cant, S. (2009) Mainstream marginality: ‘Non-orthodox’ medicine in an ‘Orthodox’ health service.  In J. Gabe & M. Calnan (eds) The New Sociology of the Health Service. Routledge
  • Cant, S. (2005) What do people want. In G. L. Treweek, T. Heller, J. Stone, H. MacQueen & J. Katz (eds) Perspectives on Complementary and Alternative Medicines. Open University Press
  • Cant, S. (2004) Medical pluralism. In J. Gabe, M. Bury & M. A. Eston (eds) Key concepts in Medical Sociology. London: Sage
  • Cant, S. (2002) Recycling old ideas for a new age. In T. Jenkins (ed.) Alternative Medicine: Should We Swallow It? London: Institute of Ideas: Hodder and Stoughton
  • Calnan, M., Cant, S. & Gabe, J. (1993) Keeping up with the Joneses. Private health insurance as a consumption good. In S. Platt, H. Thomas, S. Scott & G. Williams (eds) Locating Health Sociological and Historical Explorations (pp 205 218)
  • Calnan, M. & Cant, S. (1992) Principles and Practice: the case of private medical insurance. In R. Burrows & C. Marsh (eds) Consumption and Class; Divisions and Change. Macmillan.