Sociology of Health and Illness

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.

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.

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.

Offering important nuances and crucial insights into diverse gender identities and trans-related healthcare inequalities, this ground-breaking research marks an important contribution to the wider fields of gender studies, LGBTQ scholarship and medical policy.

This crucial contemporary study reviews the evolving role of local authorities in health, social care and wellbeing. Health and policy experts survey disparities across Britain, share case studies of strategies and consider authorities’ interaction with local and central government.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.