Measuring the Quality of Life: A Sociological Invention Concerning the Application of Economics to Health Care

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Abstract
The paper which follows takes the form of a dialogue between a sociological voice and an unidentified, questioning voice. The two voices explore some of the tasks involved in, and difficulties generated by, the attempt to apply social science to practical issues. The discussion focuses on the area of health economics and, particularly, on recent efforts to provide measures of the quality of life that can be used to solve administrative problems within the NHS. Beginning from close examination of a particular text, the sociological voice claims to reveal some of the background assumptions of health economics as a social practice and to identify some of the ways in which the production and application of economic knowledge are socially contingent. The sociological voice also contrasts the textual form of the present paper with the `scientific' format normally employed by economists and most other applied social scientists. S/he may be read as asserting that the dialogic character of the present text is in some way more suited to a more collaborative use of social science expertise in the realm of practical action.

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