Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Glumm, K.
Right arrow Articles by Johnson, J. D.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Creating the "Unfit": Social Darwinism or Social Triage?

Constructing a Supply of Patients in Private Psychiatric Hospitals

Karen Glumm

Meredith College

Jennifer D. Johnson

Research Triangle Institute

Social Darwinism calls for "inequality, survival of the fittest" and not "liberty, survival of the unfittest. " However, this theory fails to acknowledge that fitness can be a social construction. Social triage argues that bureaucratic decision makers find it inefficient to work with certain groups, and these decision makers sacrifice these groups’ needs in order that others (more beneficial to the organization) receive services. Social triage appears linked to social Darwinism. To favor society’s "most fit" members, it seems necessary to establish "unfit" members. Sacrificing the needs of certain populations seems possible only if fitness can be a social construction. Using a case study of efforts to reform private psychiatric hospitals, we argue that certain hospitals created a supply of "unfit" patients capable of paying the cost of private care, leading to social triage. Although it appeared that social Darwinism was outdated, the connection between these theories may suggest a resurgence in its use.

The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Vol. 37, No. 2, 154-179 (2001)
DOI: 10.1177/0021886301372002
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector QuarterlyHome page
R. Dart
Being "Business-Like" in a Nonprofit Organization: A Grounded and Inductive Typology
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, June 1, 2004; 33(2): 290 - 310.
[Abstract] [PDF]