Over the past two decades, rates of adult and childhood obesity in the developed world have risen sharply. By the year 2000, 65% of the United States population were overweight, 30% of these obese. Whilst medical treatment has tended to focus on individual habits of diet and exercise, this approach does little to account for globally increasing levels of obesity, and the external, environmental factors that may be responsible. This in-depth study assembles the evidence for a geographical explanation of current obesity trends, and is the first work to examine the ways in which environment and living conditions promote an imbalance of energy intake over energy expenditure. The book calls upon the expertise of geographers, nutritionists, epidemiologists, sociologists and public health researchers, resulting in a broad, multidisciplinary analysis of this important health issue. Cover graphic designed by Georgia Witten-Sage.

Western medicine, including psychiatry and psychology, has had a virtual monopoly of the health industry. This has led to economic incentives that literally keep people sick. Anthropologists, because of their holistic and comparative base, are in a unique position to apply their knowledge within clinical settings. Written for anthropologists, but useful to all clinicians, Rush's book offers a new model for understanding health and illness, provides a review of techniques found in many cultures for reducing individual and system stress, and offers processes for recovering health and individual and social balance. Rush establishes a model outlining the development of emotional problems and then offers the clinicial tools and techniques for helping individuals, families, and groups reduce stress and retranslate traumatic or distressing events. The reader will discover a very different view of emotional and physical stress; the approach taken is informational and anthropological in nature. From this approach arise numerous techniques designed to help clients achieve stress reduction and enhanced healing.

Against a background of debate around global ageing and what this means in terms of the future care need of older people, this book addresses key concerns about the nature and site of care and care-giving. Following a critical review of research into who cares, where and how, it uses geographical perspectives to present a comprehensive analysis of how the intersection of informal care-giving within domestic, community and residential care homes can create complex landscapes and organizational spatialities of care. Drawing on contemporary case studies largely, but not exclusively from the UK, the book reviews and develops a theoretical basis for a geographical analysis of the issue of care. By relating these theoretical concepts to empirical data and case studies it illustrates how formal and informal care-giver responses to the changing landscape of care can act to facilitate or constrain the development of inclusionary models of care.

There has been a general assumption in the international debate surrounding organ procurement that Presumed Consent (opting-out) systems produce better results than Express Consent (opting-in) systems. This study uses the French case to challenge this widely held assumption and argues that the French presumed consent systems coexist with patterns of behaviour that in practice do not mobilize the law. It explores four key areas to current research in socio-legal studies focussing on the state and nature of social solidarity, social engineering and the changing nature of the citizen-state relations, state intervention in the event of death and discretion in use of corpses and recent modifications of the status of medical professionals as figures of authority and agents of state policy. Using material based on interviews with medical professionals, this title will be a valuable resource for researchers, academics, policy-makers and practitioners with an interest in this complex and topical subject.

With the World Health Organization estimating that nearly four percent of global deaths are due to alcohol, alcohol misuse can be an extremely damaging social problem, and one that governments around the world have endeavored to address through a range of policy strategies. Regulating Alcohol around the World explores historical and contemporary case studies in multiple countries to gain a richer understanding of the political, economic, and other forces that influence alcohol-related policymaking. The case studies presented in the book investigate a range of different kinds of alcohol policies, including prohibition strategies, general efforts to reduce alcohol's social harms, and more targeted policies. The explanatory value of leading theories from political science, policy studies, anthropology, and other fields is assessed, with particular reference to the influence of cultural and historical factors on approaches to alcohol regulation. The book adopts a global perspective and offers guidance for students, researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and other stakeholders about the lessons that can be learned from previous efforts to change alcohol policies. As such, it will be of interest to practitioners in the fields of health and alcohol abuse prevention, as well as scholars and students of social policy, criminology, and the sociology of health, addiction, and social problems.

The Social Pathologies of Contemporary Civilization explores the nature of contemporary malaises, diseases, illnesses and psychosomatic syndromes, examining the manner in which they are related to cultural pathologies of the social body. Multi-disciplinary in approach, the book is concerned with questions of how these conditions are not only manifest at the level of individual patients' bodies, but also how the social 'bodies politic' are related to the hegemony of reductive biomedical and individual-psychologistic perspectives. Rejecting a reductive, biomedical and individualistic diagnosis of contemporary problems of health and well-being, The Social Pathologies of Contemporary Civilization contends that many such problems are to be understood in the light of radical changes in social structures and institutions, extending to deep crises in our civilization as a whole. Rather than considering such conditions in isolation - both from one another and from broader contexts - this book argues that health and well-being are not just located at the level of the individual body, the integral human person, or even collective social bodies; rather, they encompass the health of humanity as a whole and our relationship with Nature. A ground-breaking analysis of social malaise and the health of civilization, this book will be of interest to scholars of sociology, social theory, social psychology, philosophy and anthropology.

Since the late 1990s approaches to women's reproductive health has shifted from a service-based model to a human rights approach. This approach associates reproductive health with freedom from discrimination and enjoyment of a satisfying and safe sex life, and full access to information and services related to reproduction. In spite of this shift, and the global effort to promote women's reproductive health through the enhancement of human rights and gender equality, progress has been very slow. In this book the author fills a much-needed empirical study of women's reproductive health. The author assesses data from 137 developing countries (or areas) and challenges the prevailing bioscience and public health models by linking women's reproductive health to gender equality measures and development policies. Discussion on abortion rights, regional variations and reproductive health needs among refugees and internally displaced persons are also discussed. This is a timely study which provides a theoretical and social policy basis for monitoring and improving women's reproductive health in developing countries. This is particularly important in the light of insufficient research in the field and a lack of analysis on the empirical and theoretical linkages between reproductive health and gender equality. The book will be of interest to researchers, professionals and students interested in women's health issues, gender/women's studies and human rights.

Women's Health Matters, like its sister volume Women's Health Counts, is an invaluable practical guide to doing feminist research on women's health. Written by experienced researchers and practitioners, these lively accounts of research work range from getting the research idea, through obtaining the funding and doing the research, to the practical problems faced, and eventual publication. The book provides an ideal antidote to textbooks and manuals, giving the reader a taste of the problems and pleasures of doing real research.

Exploring the value of photography and video as legitimate forms of social enquiry, An Applied Visual Sociology: Picturing Harm Reduction constitutes a guidebook for conducting applied visual sociology within health related or social science research projects, providing a full account of the visual research journey and presenting a tested template for conducting theoretically-driven, sociologically-informed research. Against the background of the growing popularity of visual methods, this book goes beyond using photographs for illustrative and descriptive purposes, to emphasise the importance of sociological, epistemological and analytical theory, together with methods of data collection and the presentation of images for applied purposes. As such, An Applied Visual Sociology: Picturing Harm Reduction offers a template for considering visual data as applied research, providing a full account of the manner in which visual methods can inform research and specific interventions, together with opportunities for students and practitioners to consider applied visual sociology in a series of practical or self-study tasks . It will therefore appeal not only to students and researchers involved in social and health-related qualitative research, or those seeking to conduct innovative visual projects within the social sciences, but also to scholars interested in research methods, visual ethnography and harm reduction approaches to drug use.

Since the naming of hepatitis C in 1989, knowledge about the disease has grown exponentially. So too, however, has the stigma with which it is linked. Associated with injecting drug use and tainted blood scandals, hepatitis C inspires fear and blame. Making Disease, Making Citizens takes a timely look at the disease, those directly affected by it and its social and cultural implications. Drawing on personal interviews and a range of textual sources, the book presents a scholarly and engaging analysis of a newly identified and highly controversial disease and its relationship to philosophies of health, risk and harm in the West. It maps the social and medical negotiations taking place around the disease, shedding light on the ways these negotiations are also co-producing new selves. Adopting a feminist science and technology studies approach, this theoretically sophisticated, empirically informed analysis of the social construction of disease and the philosophy of health will appeal to those with interests in the sociology of health and medicine, health communication and harm reduction, and science and technology studies.

This practical guide will assist healthcare practitioners to manage and meet the physical and psycho-social needs of people with complex chronic diseases/long-term conditions. Systematic and evidence-based care which takes account of the expert patient and reduces unnecessary hospital admissions is vital to support those with long-term conditions/chronic diseases and those who care for them. Effective management of long-term conditions is an essential part of contemporary nursing and healthcare policy and practice globally. Reflecting recent changes in the curriculum, this fully updated multidisciplinary edition highlights the key issues in managing long-term conditions. It provides a practical and accessible guide for nurses and allied health professionals in the primary care environment including: case studies on HIV and dementia and content on mental health the physical and psychosocial impact of living with long-term conditions effective case management self-management and the expert patient behavioural change strategies and motivational counselling Packed with helpful, clearly written information, Managing Long-term Conditions and Chronic Illness in Primary Care includes case studies, fact boxes and pointers for practice. It is ideal reading for pre- and post-registration nursing students taking modules on long-term conditions and will be a valuable companion for pre-registration students on community placements.

This book explores recent developments, constraints and opportunities relating to the advancement of sexual and reproductive health and rights in Africa. Despite many positive developments in relation to sexual and reproductive health in recent years, many Africans still encounter challenges, for instance in poor maternity services, living with HIV, and discrimination on the basis of age, gender, sexual orientation or identity. Covering topics such as abortion, gender identity, adolescent sexuality and homosexuality, the chapters in this book discuss the impact of culture, morality and social beliefs on the enjoyment of sexual and reproductive health and rights across the continent, particularly in relation to vulnerable and marginalized groups. The book also explores the role of litigation, national human rights institutions and regional human rights bodies in advancing the realization of sexual and reproductive health and rights in the region. Throughout, the contributions highlight the relevance of a rights-based framework in addressing topical and contentious issues on sexual and reproductive health and rights within Sub-Saharan Africa. This book will be of interest to researchers of sexuality, civil rights and health in Africa. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781003175049, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

This volume brings together researchers from different European countries and disciplines who are involved in Clinical Ethics Consultation (CEC). The work provides an analysis of the theories and methods underlying CEC as well a discussion of practical issues regarding the implementation and evaluation of CEC. The first section deals with different possible approaches in CEC. The authors explore the question of how we should decide complex cases in clinical ethics, that is, which ethical theory, approach or method is most suitable in order to make an informed ethical decision. It also discusses whether clinical ethicists should be ethicists by education or rather well-trained facilitators with some ethical knowledge. The second chapter of this book focuses on practical aspects of the implementation of CEC structures. The analysis of experienced clinical ethicists refers to macro and micro levels in both developed and transitional countries. Research on the evaluation of CEC is at the centre of the final chapter of this volume. In this context conceptual as well as empirical challenges with respect to a sound approach to judgements about the quality of the work of CECs are described and suggestion for further research in this area are made. In summary this volumes brings together theorists and healthcare practitioners with expertise in CEC. In this respect the volume serves as good example for a multi- and interdisciplinary approach to clinical ethics which combines philosophical reasoning and empirical research.

Quarantine has shaped our world, yet it remains both feared and misunderstood. It is our most powerful response to uncertainty, but it operates through an assumption of guilt: in quarantine, we are considered infectious until proven safe. An unusually poetic metaphor for moral and mythic ills, quarantine means waiting to see if something hidden inside of us will be revealed.

Until Proven Safe tracks the history and future of quarantine around the globe, chasing the story of emergency isolation through time and space – from the crumbling lazarettos of the Mediterranean to the hallways of the CDC, to the corporate giants hoping to disrupt the widespread quarantine imposed by Covid-19 before the next pandemic hits through surveillance and algorithmic prediction.

Yet quarantine is more than just a medical tool: Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley drop deep into the Earth to tour a nuclear-waste isolation facility beneath the New Mexican desert, strip down to nothing but protective Tyvek suits to see plants stricken with a disease that threatens the world’s wheat supply, and meet NASA’s Planetary Protection Officer tasked with saving the Earth from extraterrestrial infections.

The result is part travelogue, part intellectual history – a book as compelling as it is definitive, and one that could not be more urgent or timely.

Critical Interventions in the Ethics of Healthcare argues that traditional modes of bioethics are proving incommensurable with burgeoning biotechnologies and consequently, emerging subjectivities. Drawn from diverse disciplines, this volume works toward a new mode of discourse in bioethics, offering a critique of the current norms and constraints under which Western healthcare operates. The contributions imagine new, less paternalistic, terms by which bioethics might proceed - terms that do not resort to exclusively Western models of liberal humanism or to the logic of neoliberal economies. It is argued that in this way, we can begin to develop an ethical vocabulary that does justice to the challenges of our age. Bringing together theorists, practitioners and clinicians to present a wide variety of related disciplinary concerns and perspectives on bioethics, this volume challenges the underlying assumptions that continue to hold sway in the ethics of medicine and health sciences.

Testing for genetic diseases or traits is a rapidly developing practice, the most widely used form of testing currently in use being newborn screening. Based on a five-year research project and winner of the Prix 'Le Monde' for academic research in France, The Birth of a Genetics Policy analyses the three dimensions - scientific, political and moral - of the social issues raised by a policy of screening for the genetic disease of cystic fibrosis amongst babies. Drawing on extensive interview material and observational research, it explores the conditions under which a screening policy is decided upon and implemented, the types of political logic underlying it, and the effects it has on norms and values. Revealing the ties that exist between forms of biomedical knowledge and political techniques, whilst showing how the notion of biomedical abnormality is being extended, this book sheds light on judgements surrounding the idea of the 'quality (of) life'. A rigorous examination of the discourses and practices of medical genetics in the early twenty-first century, The Birth of a Genetics Policy will appeal to sociologists and anthropologists with interests in medicine and the body, evidence-based care and questions of biopolitics and governmentality.

This book provides a systematic collection of EU actors, EU policy and EU actions in global health. It answers key questions on governance of the EU and its policy processes. The book starts with an introduction to the EU as a global actor and continues to outline the historical development and the Treaty basis for health, including the Maastricht and Lisbon Treaties. It also discusses the Commission's global health communication and the subsequent Council Conclusions on global health. Both documents define EU values in global health and identify the future priorities for global health action in the EU. Four of the five priorities are then described from the perspective of a different country experience. The book also considers the opportunities for research and provides an overview of the political, legal and financial instruments available to the EU. It also explores the global health architecture and processes within which the EU is acting, namely at the WHO, in the different multilateral organizations, and in global public health international treaties and regulations. Finally, the book addresses the importance of policy coherence at a national level and provides critical viewpoint on the EU as a global health actor.The book will assist practitioners working in policy making and international negotiations affecting health, as well as students and researchers, to create a better understanding of the European Union, its role in global health, and the uniqueness and specificity of the EU as a global health actor. It provides an overview of how the EU can act in global health and outlines the intersections of health and other sectors, as well as the instruments available to the EU to act effectively at a global level. The collection of contributions in this form and from this health policy perspective are not yet found elsewhere on the market.

This book examines donor conception and the search for information by donor-conceived people. It details differing regulatory approaches across the globe, including those that provide for 'open-identity' or anonymous donation, or that take a 'dual-track' approach. In doing so, it identifies models regarding the recording and release of information about donors that may assist in the further development of the law, policy and associated practices. Arguments for and against donor anonymity are considered, and specifically critiqued. The study highlights contrasting reasoning and emphasis upon various interests and factors that may underpin secrecy, anonymity or openness. The book will be of value to academics, students and legal practitioners involved with this area. It is also relevant to policy makers, health practitioners and anyone with an interest in the subject.

The Routledge Companion to Art and Disability explores disability in visual culture to uncover the ways in which bodily and cognitive differences are articulated physically and theoretically, and to demonstrate the ways in which disability is culturally constructed. This companion is organized thematically and includes artists from across historical periods and cultures in order to demonstrate the ways in which disability is historically and culturally contingent. The book engages with questions such as: How are people with disabilities represented in art? How are notions of disability articulated in relation to ideas of normality, hybridity, and anomaly? How do artists use visual culture to affirm or subvert notions of the normative body? Contributors consider the changing role of disability in visual culture, the place of representations in society, and the ways in which disability studies engages with and critiques intersectional notions of gender, race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality. This book will be particularly useful for scholars in art history, disability studies, visual culture, and museum studies.

Twentieth century Europe went through a dramatic transition from low income populations experiencing hunger and nutritionally inadequate diets, to the recent era of over-consumption and growing numbers of overweight and obese people. By examining the trends in food history from case studies across Europe, this book offers a historical context to explain how and why this transition has occurred and what we can learn in order to try and address the vitally important issues arising from obesity in contemporary Europe.

Serenity is becoming alarmingly absent from our daily existence, especially within the urban context. Time is dense and space is tumultuous. The idea of the serene has gained currency in postmodern discussions, and when combined with urbanism conjures questions, even contradictions, as the two ideas seem improbable yet their correspondence seems so inherently desirable. Integrated, these two constructs present design challenges as they manifest in differing ways across the rural-urban transect. In response, Part I of this book establishes the theoretical framework through different contemporary perspectives, and concludes with a clear explanation of a theory of serene urbanism. The positive characteristics of urbanism and beneficial qualities of the serene are explored and related to sustainability, biophilia, placemaking and environmental design. Both principles and examples are presented as compelling portraits for the proposal of these new urban landscapes. Part II of the work is an in-depth exploration and analysis of serene urban ideas related to the intentional community being created outside of Atlanta, Georgia, USA. "Serenbe" is the name given to this place to commemorate the value and nuance between the serene and urban.

The second decade of the twenty-first century has witnessed a surging interest in personalized medicine with the concomitant promise to enable more precise diagnosis and treatment of disease and illness, based upon an individual's unique genetic makeup. In this book, my goal is to contribute to a growing body of literature on personalized medicine by tracing and analyzing how this field has blossomed in Asia. In so doing, I aim to illustrate how various social and economic forces shape the co-production of science and social order in global contexts. This book shows that there are inextricable transnational linkages between developing and developed countries and also provides a theoretically guided and empirically grounded understanding of the formation and usage of particular racial and ethnic human taxonomies in local, national and transnational settings. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/doi/view/10.4324/9781315537177 has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

The rapid increase in the demand for international tourism has led a growing number of people to seek holidays and travel experiences in both developed and developing countries. Yet little interest has been shown in the interface between tourism and health, Health and the International Tourist, first published in 1996, examines key relationships between travel, tourism and health. Particular attention is given to the behaviour and lifestyle of tourists and approaches to reducing the health risks associated with international travel and tourism. This was the first book to address tourist health in an interdisciplinary manner, with contributions from professionals in medicine, health promotion, the travel and tourism industry and tourism researchers. It will provide a sound basis for further research and the development of health promotion strategies, and will be of interest to students of health and tourism.

The anxiety over death persists in everyday life- though often denied or repressed- lingering as an unconscious worry or intuition that typically seems to compromise one's feelings of well-being and experience in a range of areas; coming out often as malaise, depression, and anger in much conduct. If one accepts the cliche that life is preparation for death, we must accept that the lived experience of the dying body is not highlighted merely in obvious cases of deterioration such as in the ageing or diseased body, but in everyday life as a normal phenomenon. This book proposes that sensitivity to this dimension can empower us to develop creative relationships to the vulnerability of others and to ourselves as well. Part One lays the groundwork for a study of the ways the aura and fear of death recurs as a constant premonition in life and how people try to deal with this uneasiness. Part Two then goes on to apply this focus to particular concerns and problems such as dementia, depression, aging, retirement, and a range of anxieties, frustrations and aggressions. The Dying Body as Lived Experience will be of interest to a wide interdisciplinary audience in the health sciences, in the sociology of health and illness, philosophy, bioethics and in the expanding field of medical humanities.

A prevailing excitement can be discerned in the medical and public health literature and popular media concerning the apparent 'disruptive' or 'revolutionary' potential of digital health technologies. Most of the wider social implications are often ignored or glossed over in such accounts. Critical approaches from within the social sciences that take a more measured perspective are important - including those that focus on risk. The contributors to this volume examine various dimensions of risk in the context of digital health. They identify that digital health devices and software offer the ability to configure new forms of risk, in concert with novel responsibilities. The contributions emphasise the sheer volume of detail about very personal and private elements of people's lives, emotions and bodies that contemporary digital technologies can collect. They show that apps and other internet tools and forums provide opportunities for health and medical risks to be identified, publicised or managed, but also for unvalidated new therapies to be championed. Most of the authors identify the neoliberal 'soft' politics of digital health, in which lay people are encouraged ('nudged') to engage in practices of identifying and managing health risk in their own interests, and the victim-blaming that may be part of these discourses. This book was originally published as a special issue of Health, Risk and Society.