Olaug S. Lian

• Medical Uncertainty
• Contested Chronic Conditions: experiential perspectives
• Sociology of diagnosis
• Social constructions of health and illness
• Cultural, historical and gendered perspectives on medical knowledge and practice
• Medicalisation as a modern phenomena
• The medical encounter: patient-doctor interaction and roles
• Illness experiences
• Qualitative research and narrative theory
• The role of theory in qualitative research
• Photography and visual research
• Critical perspectives on the commodification of health care services

Main current international collaborative project:

Negotiating medical uncertainty in clinical encounters: a narrative exploration of 212 naturally occurring GP consultations.

In this study, our aim is to explore how illness narratives are co-constructed within consultations between doctors and patients. Their mutual handling of medical uncertainty is emphasised. The study is based on 212 GP consultations in England, sourced from the One-in-a-Million archive in the UK. Consultations involve musculo-skeletal, psychological, digestive, cardiovascular, neurological, endocrine/metabolic and general conditions, which allows for a comparison across health and illness concerns. Qualitative interpretive inductive thematic analysis is used to explore these naturally occurring clinical consultations. In practice the analytic procedures will involve: observing and interpreting the sampled consultations; identifying factors that facilitate constructive interactions; categorising; and identifying optimum conditions for good doctor-patient relations in clinical encounters. To identify dynamic processes involved in the co-construction of illness narratives is the main aim of our study. NVivo will be used to store, structure and explore the data.

Academic degree

Dr. Polit. 1999 (sociology)

Cand. Polit. 1993 (sociology and philosophy)

Current research projects

• MEDICAL UNCERTAINTY AND CONTESTED CHRONIC CONDITIONS. In territories of medical uncertainty, clinical encounters are highly contentious - especially in cases involving contested chronic conditions. To uncover maintaining mechanisms behind persistent conflicts, we explore the interactional dynamics of clinical encounters fused with medical uncertainty. Based on a thematic qualitative exploration of experiential texts from people living with contested chronic conditions, we explore patients’ main expectations, how these expectations are met, and how their expectations and experiences are socially constructed and structurally conditioned. Most recent Open Access publication from this project is available here. Our work in this field of research has been evaluated as excellent by an international expert panel, see evaluation here.

Current academic roles

• Professor of medical sociology, Department of Community Medicine, University of Tromsø (since 2013)
• Research advisor at the University hospital of Northern Norway (20% from 2003 to 2019, 10% from 2019)
• Researcher at University of Oslo, Department of health sciences (since 2018)
• Member of International advisory board, Sociology of health & illness
• Reviewer for 12 journals: Sociology of health & illness, Social Science & Medicine, Social theory & health, Patient education and counselling, Scandinavian journal of public health, British Journal of Social Psychology, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, BMC Family Practice, Medical Humanities, Sosiologisk tidsskrift, Tidsskrift for samfunnsforskning and Tidsskrift for Den norske legeforening. 

Previous academic positions

• Various academic positions at University of Tromsø from 1993 to 2004 (PhD fellow/post. doc./researcher/)
• Associate professor at University of Tromsø 2004 - 2013
• Editor Sosiologisk tidsskrift [Journal of sociology] in 2014
• Visiting scholar, Department of sociology, University of York, from March to May 2012.
• Research manager (20%), The Health Service Research Program of the Norwegian Research Council (2008-2010)
• Member of several committees working to elaborate a new curriculum for medical studies at University of Tromsø (from 2006 to 2011)
• Visiting scholar, Czech Association for Health Services Research, Prague, The Czech Republic (3 months during 2005)
• Visiting scholar, Health Services Manage­ment Centre, University of Birmingham, UK (12 months during 2000 and 2001)
• Member of expert panel on social inequalities in health appointed by The Norwegian Directorate of Health (2005-2013)

Research grants as project manager

• Quality, accessibility and coordination of health care in Norway for people with chronic illnesses - seen from the users’ point of view, research project (1/2011 – 12/2014), Norwegian Research Council, grant no. 212987 (5 mill. Norwegian crowns).
• Pasienterfaringer i allmennlegetjenesten før og etter fastlegeordningen, research project, (10/2002 – 12/2003), Norwegian Research Council, grant no. 151318/330.
• When health becomes commodified, post. doc. project (07/1999 – 06/2002), Norwegian Research Council, grant no. 129173/330.
• Convergence or divergence? Reforming primary care in Norway and United Kingdom, research project (07.2000 – 07/2001), Norwegian Research Council, grant no. 137351/300.
• Nyere helsepolitiske reformer - fordelingsvirkninger og normative problemstillinger, PhD-project (02/1995 – 03/1999), Norwegian Research Council, grant no. 108243/330.

Invited speeches and paper presentations (selection, since 2012)

• Sosio-logiske helseulikheter i breddeformat. Invitert foredrag, Vinterseminaret, Norsk Sosiologforening, Storefjell 1.2.2019.
• Biomedical hegemony: a critical perspective on the cultural imperialism of modern biomedical perspectives on human life. Paper presentation at The 6th Euroacademia Global Forum of Critical Studies - Asking Big Questions Again, Lucca, Italy, 23-25 November 2017.
• Gendered perspectives on contested chronic conditions. Invited speaker at the conference ”Embodying the gender regime: health, illness and dis-ease across the life course”, University of Liverpool UK, 22 September 2017.
• ”I do not really belong out there anymore.” Sense of being and belonging among people with medically unexplained long-term fatigue. Paper presented at the 12th ESA conference, Prague, Czech Republic, 28 August 2015.
• “United we stand.” The discursive framing of online negotiations of ME in a virtual symbolic community. Speech given at the ESRC seminar series on the sociology of diagnosis, University of York, 27. January 2014.
• Negotiating medically unexplained seizures (PNES) in clinical encounters. Paper presented at the 67.th BSA Annual Conference 2014 in Leeds, England, 23. April 2014 (with Catherine Robson).
• Kvalitet på helsetjenester til ME-syke: et brukerperspektiv. Regional nettverkskonferanse CFS/ME, Helse Nord, Tromsø 13. november 2014.
• Medical constructions of exhausted women – today and yesterday. Paper presented at the 66.th BSA Annual Conference 2013 in London, England, 5. April 2013.
• Negotiating ME in Norwegian Virtual Symbolic Communities. Paper presented at the BSA Medical Sociology Group Annual Conference, York 12. September 2013 (with Sarah Nettleton)
• Illness without disease – a challenge to the paradigm of modern medicine. Paper presented at the 14th biennal congress of ESHMS in Hannover, Germany, 31. August 2012.
• Illness without disease – a challenge to the paradigm of modern medicine. Paper presented at the 26th conference of the Nordic sociological association, Reykjavik, Island, 18. August 2012.

Publication list (since 2001)

• Lian OS (2019) Contested chronic conditions fused with medical uncertainty: gendered perspectives. In Pickard S (ed.): Ageing, the Body and the Gender Regime: Health, illness and disease across the life course. Routledge (in press).
• Lian OS and Robson C (2019) Socially constructed and structurally conditioned conflicts in territories of medical uncertainty. In Social Theory & Health 17 (1): 23-39 (DOI: 10.1057/s41285-018-00082-w).
• Lian OS, Robson C and Bondevik H (2018) Women With Long-Term Exhaustion in Fictional Literature: A Comparative Approach. In Farcas CA (ed.): Reading the Psychosomatic in Medical and Popular Culture: Something. Nothing. Everything. London: Routledge, Chapter 8, pp. 113-127.
• Robson C, Myers L, Pretorius C, Lian OS and Reuber M (2018). Health related quality of life of people with non-epileptic seizures: The role of socio-demographic characteristics and stigma. Seizure – European Journal of Epilepsy, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seizure.2018.01.001.
• Lian OS and Robson C (2017) “It´s incredible how much I´ve had to fight.” Negotiating medical uncertainty in clinical encounters. International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being 12. sup2: 1392219.
• Robson C and Lian OS (2017) “Blaming, shaming, humiliation”: Stigmatising medical interactions among people with non-epileptic seizures. Wellcome Open Research, 2:55 (https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/2-55).
• Lian OS and Grue J (2017) Generating a Social Movement Online Community through an Online Discourse: The Case of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. Journal of Medical Humanities (38) 2: 173–189. DOI: 10.1007/s10912-016-9390-8.
• Sand AS, Emaus, N, and Lian, OS (2017) Motivation and obstacles for weight management among young women–a qualitative study with a public health focus - the Tromsø study: Fit Futures. BMC Public Health, 17(1), 417.
• Sand AS, Furberg, AS, Lian OS, Nielsen CS, Pettersen G, Winther A and Emaus N (2017) Cross-sectional study of the differences between measured, perceived and desired body size and their relations with self-perceived health in young adults: The Tromsø Study–Fit Futures 2. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 45(3), 322-330.
• Lian OS and GF Lorem (2017) ”I do not really belong out there anymore.” Sense of being and belonging among people with medically unexplained long-term fatigue. Qualitative Health Research (27) 4: 474–486. DOI: 10.1177/1049732316629103.
• Lian OS and F Rapport (2016) Life according to ME: Caught in the ebb-tide. Health 20 (6): 578-598. DOI:
• 10.1177/1363459315622041.
• Robson C and OS Lian (2016) «Are you saying she’s mentally ill then?» Explaining medically unexplained seizures in clinical encounters. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research 17 (1): 1-28.
• Hansen AH and Lian OS (2016). Experiences of general practitioner continuity among women with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis: a cross-sectional study. BMC Health Services Research, 16(1), 650. DOI: 10.1186/s12913-016-1909-1.
• Hansen AH and Lian OS (2016) How do women with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis rate quality and coordination of healthcare services? A cross-sectional study. BMJ Open 6:4 e010277, DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-010277.
• Lian OS and AH Hansen (2015) Factors facilitating patient satisfaction among women with medically unexplained long-term fatigue: A relational perspective. Health 20(3), 308-326. DOI: 10.1177/1363459315583158.
• Lian OS and H Bondevik (2015) Medical constructions of long-term exhaustion – past and present. Sociology of Health & Illness 37 (6): 920-935, DOI: 10.1111/1467-9566.12249.
• Lian OS and S. Nettleton (2015) ‘United We Stand’. Framing Myalgic Encephalomyelitis in a Virtual Symbolic Community. Qualitative Health Research 25 (10): 1383-1394. DOI: 10.1177/1049732314562893.
• Sand AS, N Emaus and OS Lian (2015) Overweight and obesity in young adult women: a matter of health or appearance? The Tromsø Study: Fit Futures. Int J of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/qhw.v10.29026.
• Hansen AH, AE Kristoffersen, OS Lian and PA Halvorsen (2014) Continuity of GP care is associated with lower use of complementary and alternative medical providers: a population-based cross-sectional survey. BMC health services research 14 (1): 629.
• Lian OS (2014) Om medisinske kunnskapsformer og det kliniske blikket. Bokanmeldelse av Christer Petersson (2014) Kunskap och läkekonst. Tankar om allmännmedicin. [Medical knowledge and the clinical gaze. Book review.] Tidsskr Nor legeforen 134 (22): 2186.
• Lian OS (2014) Hva ligger i navnet? Psykiatriske diagnoser og diagnosenes sosiologi [What’s in a name? The sociology of psychiatric diagnoses]. Tidsskrift for Norsk Psykologforening 51 (9): 723-728.
• Lian OS (2014) Karaktertrekkdigagnoser. Rus og samfunn 8 (5): 39-44.
• Lian OS and H Bondevik (2013) Diagnosenes sosiologi: Medisinske forståelser av utmattede kvinner – før og nå [The sociology of diagnosis: Medical understandings of exhausted women – yesterday and today]. Sosiologisk tidsskrift 21 (4): 329-352.
• Klüwer-Trotter B and OS Lian (2012) Holdninger til legesøkning – variasjoner etter sosial tilhørighet? Tidsskr Nor Legeforen 132 (1): 36-40 [English version “Attitudes to seeking medical assistance – variations depending on social background?”: http://tidsskriftet.no/article/2196318/en_GB].
• Lian OS (2012) Medikaliseringens uttrykk, drivkrefter og implikasjoner [Medicalisation: expressions, driving forces and implications]. In A Tjora (ed.) Helsesosiologi, pp. 38-61. Oslo: Gyldendal Akademisk.
• Lian OS (2012) Å iscenesette en fortelling om helse: Vitenskapssosiologiske refleksjoner [Staging health narratives: Philosophical reflections]. In A Tjora (ed.) Helsesosiologi, pp. 231-250. Oslo: Gyldendal Akademisk.
• Lian OS (2012) Etter gullalderen: nye utfordringer for helsetjenesten [After the Golden Age: New challenges for health care]. In HO Melberg and LE Kjekshus (ed.) Fremtidens Helse-Norge, pp. 27-55. Oslo: Gyldendal Akademisk.
• Lian OS (2012) Vitenskap og verdier i moderne medisin: Idealer og realiteter [Science and values in modern medicine: Ideals and realities]. Sosiologisk Årbok 25 (2): 83-106.
• Lian OS (2009) Helseprofesjonenes utvikling – et kontekstuelt perspektiv. [Contextualising the development of the health professions] Michael 6 (3): 313-320.
• Lian OS and S Westin (2009) Bidrar helsetjenesten til sosiale ulikheter i helse? [Does health services contribute to social inequalities in health?] In JG Mæland, JI Elstad, Ø Næss and S Westin, eds. Sosial epidemiologi. Sosiale årsaker til sykdommer og helsesvikt, pp. 315-335. Oslo: Gyldendal Akademisk.
• Lian OS (2009) Medisinen – det falske marked? [Medicine – the false market?] In P Bruusgaard, J Frich, P Fugelli and B Wilmar, eds. Penger og verdier i helsetjenesten, pp. 39-53. Oslo: Gyldendal Akademisk.
• Kjekshus LE and OS Lian (2009) Rapport fra nettverksmøter om norsk forskning på helse- og omsorgstjenester 2008/2009. Oslo: Norges forskningsråd (http://www.forskningsradet.no/servlet/Satellite?c=Page&cid=1226994198661&pagename=helseomsorg%2FHovedsidemal).
• Lian OS (2008) Global challenges, global solutions? A cross-national comparison of primary health care in Britain, Norway and the Czech Republic. Health Sociology Review 17 (1): 27-40.
• Lian OS (2008) Pasienten som kunde. In A Tjora, ed. Den moderne pasienten, pp. 34-56. Oslo: Gyldendal Akademisk.
• Lian OS (2007) Når helse blir en vare. Medikalisering og markedsorientering i helsetjenesten. 2. ed. Kristiansand: Høyskoleforlaget.
• Lian OS (2007) Rural doctors on a global stage: Do local communities make a difference? Social Theory & Health 5 (1): 88-102.
• Lian OS and S Westin (2007) Raskere tilbake? Tidsskr Nor Lægeforen 127 (11): 1491.
• Lian OS (2006) Den moderne Eos-myten. Om medikalisering som modernitetsfenomen. Sosiologisk tidsskrift 14 (1): 63-87.
• Lian OS and E Merok, ed. (2005) Mellom nostalgi og avantgarde. Distriktsmedisin i moderne tid. Kristiansand: Høyskoleforlaget.
• Lian OS (2005) Globalisering, lokalsamfunn og distriktsmedisin. In OS Lian and E Merok, ed. Mellom nostalgi og avantgarde. Distriktsmedisin i moderne tid, pp. 35-56. Kristiansand: Høyskoleforlaget.
• Lian OS and E Merok (2005) Distriktsmedisinen og jakten på identiteten. In OS Lian and og E Merok, ed. Mellom nostalgi og avantgarde. Distriktsmedisin i moderne tid, pp. 9-17. Kristiansand: Høyskoleforlaget.
• Merok E and OS Lian (2005) Distriktsmedisin mellom nostalgi og avantgarde. In OS Lian and E Merok, red. Mellom nostalgi og avantgarde. Distriktsmedisin i moderne tid, pp. 168-174. Kr.sand: Høyskoleforlaget.
• Lian OS (2005) Allmennleger i by og bygd. Tidsskr Nor Lægeforen 125 (21): 2998-2999.
• Lian OS and E Merok (2005) Avsporinger om distriktsmedisin. Tidsskr Nor Lægeforen 125 (18): 2527.
• Lian OS (2005) Forskningsmessige utfordringer i studier av pasienttilfredshet. I Christina Foss og Bodil Ellefsen, red. Dagens helsetjenesteforskning – metoder, muligheter og mangler, s. 141-156. Oslo, Universitetsforlaget.
• Lian OS and T Wilsgaard (2005) Pasienttilfredshet – et godt kvalitetsmål? Tidsskrift for velferdsforskning 8 (1): 19-33.
• Lian OS and T Wilsgaard (2004) Pasienterfaringer i primærlegetjenesten før og etter fastlegeordningen. Tidsskr Nor Lægeforen 124 (5): 655-658.
• Lian OS (2004) Sosiologiske forståelser av helse, sykdom og medisinsk praksis. I John Gunnar Mæland, Per Fugelli, Georg Høyer og Steinar Westin, red. Sosialmedisin - i teori og praksis, s. 101-117. Oslo: Gyldendal Akademisk Forlag.
• Lian OS (2004) Økonomer i hvite frakker? Legerollen i markedets tid. I Magne Nylenna og Geir Jacobsen, red. Legerollens mange muligheter, s. 123-136. Oslo: Gyldendal Akademisk.
• Lian OS (2004) Allmennlegetjenesten og fastlegeordningen. I Rannveig Dahle og Kirsten Thorsen, red. Velferdstjenester i endring. Når politikk blir praksis, s. 95-118. Bergen, Fagbokforlaget.
• Lian OS (2003) Convergence or divergence? Reforming primary care in Norway and Britain. Milbank Quarterly 81 (2): 305-330.
• Lian OS (2003) Når helse blir en vare. Medikalisering og markedsorientering i helsetjenesten. Kristiansand: Høyskoleforlaget.
• Lian OS (2003) Pasienterfaringer i primærlegetjenesten før og etter fastlegereformen. ISM skriftserie nr. 70. Tromsø: Institutt for samfunnsmedisin, Universitetet i Tromsø.
• Lian OS (2003) Tillitens vilkår i en markedsorientert helsetjeneste. Sosiologi i dag 33 (2): 31-49.
• Lian OS and J-A Skolbekken (2003) Etiske utfordringer ved innføring av ny medisinsk teknologi. Tidsskr Nor Lægeforen 123 (4): 478-481.
• JA Skolbekken and OS Lian (2003) Hva er drivkreftene bak etterspørselen etter ny teknologi. Tidsskr Nor Lægeforen 123 (5): 653-656.
• Lian OS and JA Røttingen (2002) Legen – homo economicus eller homo sociologicus? Tidsskr Nor Lægeforen 122 (17): 1682-1685.
• Lian OS (2001) Norms for priority setting among health professionals: a view from Norway. Sociology of Health & Illness 23 (3): 357-385.

HEL-8043

HEL-3005

Professor in medical sociology

Researcher profile in Cristin

Registrations in Munin

ResearchGate

Profile at ORCID