Health Illness And The Social Body

This text presents a critical, holistic interpretation of health, illness, and human bodies that emphasizes power as a key social-structural factor in health and in societal responses to illness. It does not attempt to cover every relevant topic in the sociology of health and illness, but is organized as a set of core essays around which to build a course, with the expectation that instructors will assign additional readings to exemplify and develop further these important analytical themes.* NEW - Updates coverage throughout to include important recent research and theoretical contributions - with special emphasis on ethnic diversity, gender differences, and social stratification. * NEW - Reorganizes coverage of economic interests and power in health care to focus on the importance and complexity of health care financing and insurance before discussing the health care institutions and corporate interests themselves. *Updates coverage throughout to include important recent research and theoretical contributions-with special emphasis on ethnic diversity, gender differences, and social stratification.*Reorganizes coverage of economic interests and power in health care to focus on the

For undergraduate courses in Sociology of Health and Illness, Medical Sociology, Medical Anthropology, Urban Studies, Social Medicine, and Nursing. This text presents a critical, holistic interpretation of health, illness, and human bodies that emphasizes power as a key social-structural factor in health and in societal responses to illness. It does not attempt to cover every relevant topic in the sociology of health and illness, but is organized as a set of core essays around which to build a course, with the expectation that instructors will assign additional readings to exemplify and develop further these important analytical themes.

This book explores both the embodied nature of social life and the social nature of human bodily life. It provides an accessible review of the contemporary social science debates on the body, and develops a coherent new perspective. Nick Crossley critically reviews the literature on mind and body, and also on the body and society. He draws on theoretical insights from the work of Gilbert Ryle, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, George Herbert Mead and Pierre Bourdieu, and shows how the work of these writers overlaps in interesting and important ways which, when combined, provide the basis for a persuasive and robust account of human embodiment. The Social Body provides a timely review of the theoretical approaches to the sociology of the body. It offers new insights, and a coherent new perspective on the body.

Praise for the First Edition: `Essential to any collection of work on the body, health and illness, or social theory' - Choice `Sophisticated … and acutely perceptive of the importance of the complex dialectic between social institutions, culture and biological conditions' - Times Higher Education Supplement `Chris Shilling has done us all a splendid service in bringing together and illustrating the tremendous diversity and richness of sociological thinking on the topic of human embodiment and its implications' - Sociological Review This updated edition of the bestselling text retains all the strengths of the first edition. Chris Shilling: provides a critical survey of the field; demonstrates how developments in diet, sexuality, reproductive technology, genetic engineering and sports science have made the body a site for social alternatives and individual choices; and elucidates the practical uses of theory in striking and accessible ways. In addition, new, original material: explores the latest feminist, phenomenological and action-oriented approaches to the body; examines the latest work on `body projects' and the relationship between the body and self-identity; and outlines a compelling theoretical framework that provides a radical basis for the consolidation of body studies.

`An intelligent and informed account of medical sociology. Simon Williams has produced an original and comprehensive sociological statement of the centrality of the body to an understanding of medicine, health and illness. His scope is impressive... It will shape future teaching and research in the field of health and illness' - Bryan S Turner, Professor of Sociology, University of Cambridge This is a clear, well-written account of medicine, health and the body. Taking recent debates on the body and society as its point of departure, the book critically reexamines a series of embodied issues and emotional agendas in health and illness. Included here are cutting edge discussions and debates concerning: - the medicalized body - health inequalities - childhood and ageing - the dilemmas of high-tech medicine - chronic illness and disability - caring and (bio)ethics - sleep, death and dying - the body in late/postmodernity Written in an accessible, engaging style, with many original and innovative insights, the book will appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate students alike, and to researchers and lecturers with an interest in the embodied agendas of health and medicine in the new millennium.

Lupton's newest edition of Medicine as Culture is more relevant than ever. Trudy Rudge, Professor of Nursing, University of Sydney A welcome update of a text that has become a mainstay of the medical sociologist's library. Alan Radley, Emeritus Professor of Social Psychology, Loughborough University Medicine as Culture introduces students to a broad range of cross-disciplinary theoretical perspectives, using examples that emphasize bodies and visual images. Lupton's core contrast between lay perspectives on illness and medical power is a useful beginning point for courses teaching health and illness from a socio-cultural perspective. Arthur Frank, Department of Sociology, University of Calgary Medicine as Culture is unlike any other sociological text on health and medicine. It combines perspectives drawn from a wide variety of disciplines including sociology, anthropology, social history, cultural geography, and media and cultural studies. The book explores the ways in which medicine and health care are sociocultural constructions, ranging from popular media and elite cultural representations of illness to the power dynamics of the doctor-patient relationship. The Third Edition has been updated to cover new areas of interest, including: - studies of space and place in relation to the body - actor-network theory as it is applied in research related to medicine - The internet and social media and how they contribute to lay health knowledge and patient support - complementary and alternative medicine - obesity and fat politics. Contextualising introductions and discussion points in every chapter makes Medicine as Culture, Third Edition a rigorous yet accessible text for students. Deborah Lupton is an independent sociologist and Honorary Associate in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Sydney.

Health and illness are intensely personal matters. It seems self evident that health is a basic necessity of the 'good life', though it is often taken for granted. Illness, on the other hand challenges our sense of security and may introduce acute anxiety into our lives. Health and Illness in a Changing Society provides a lively and critical account of the impact of social change on the experience of health and illness. It also examines the different sociological perspectives that have been used to analyse health matters. While some of the ideas developed in the last twenty years remain relevant to social research in health today, many are in need of urgent revision.

"This book provides a comprehensive and contemporary exploration of a wide range of topics within the social aspects of health, illness and healthcare. It explores and explains the different relationships between social categories and health, different experiences of illness and the role of the healthcare provider in society." --rear cover.