The transformation of health and social care: Insights from sociology

There is an urgent need for health and social care services to respond in transformational ways to the needs of ageing populations and increasing prevalence of chronic illness, given a protracted underinvestment in infrastructure and severe workforce challenges. In this issue’s special section, we present four papers that examine the many challenges involved in enabling such transformations. Collectively, these papers ask where might these opportunities lie, and what are the stumbling blocks on the path to progress? These papers take different theoretical viewpoints and methodological approaches to draw attention to how transformation is envisaged, enacted and problematised by stakeholders—from policymakers to service users.