Sociology of Health and Illness

This book brings together perspectives from social science, health-care and pastoral theology, looking at the way death is handled in contemporary society and the sensitive ethical and practical dilemmas facing nurses, social workers, doctors and chaplains.

This edited collection brings together international academics, policy makers and practitioners to examine the social and cultural contexts of breastfeeding and looks at how policy and practice can apply this to women’s experiences.

This book presents a poignant account of the current policy approaches to self-determining sex and gender in the UK and beyond, showing how legal, medical and pedagogical policy developments are interconnected, and how policy is affected by transgender and diverse gender experiences and activism.

Providing perspectives from the global North and South, faith leaders, scholars and activists demonstrate the complex connections between faith and abortion, how women and pregnant people are positioned in society and how morality is claimed and challenged.

Extending the ideas developed in the previous volumes in the Social Determinants of Health series, this book reviews the impact of COVID-19 on local and national governance from the perspectives of public health, social care and economic development.

Drawing from a range of disciplines and case studies, this volume examines the latest health and genetic technologies, explores the representation, communication, and internalization of health knowledge and reveals the economic and cultural inequalities that result from these technologies.

This book addresses the prejudices that emerged out of the collision of the two pandemics of 2020: COVID-19 and Racism.

This transdisciplinary collection engages with key issues of social exclusion, inequality, power and knowledge in the context of COVID-19 for a more equitable and inclusive human future.

This book showcases the impact of state responses to COVID-19 on marginalized communities. The authors analyse the lockdowns, immigration and border controls, vaccine trials, income support and access to healthcare across eight countries in Australasia, North America, Asia and Europe to reveal the internal inequities within and between countries.

Putting the spotlight on neoliberalism as a pervasive tool that dictates wellness as a moral obligation, this book critically analyses how users navigate relationships between self-tracking technologies, social media and health management.

Bringing together leading academics worldwide, this collection compares and critically examines the ways in which different countries are regulating healthcare in general, and health professions in particular, in the interest of users and the wider public.

Addressing urgent challenges and debates in trans health, this book interweaves patient voices with social theory and autobiography, offering an innovative look at how shifting language, patient mistrust, waiting lists and professional power shape clinical encounters, and exploring what a better future might look like for trans patients.