This book argues that sport in the era of global or financialised capitalism has undergone a process of fracturing, which requires a re-assessment of longstanding and consensual accounts of traditional-to-modern sporting activity. Considering rival concepts of sport, it presents detailed, illustrative studies of various types of sporting or athletic activity - including soccer, cricket, rugby and track and field - to advance an alternative sociological understanding of sport rooted in the philosophies and theories of critical realism and critical theory. As such, A Critical Realist Theory of Sport will appeal to scholars of sociology and social theory with interests in sport, research methods and critical realist thought.

This text seeks to enable medical sociology to establish a voice in key debates in the social sciences. These debates concern modernity, postmodernity, structuralism and poststructuralism as they relate to medical sociology. Topics include: disease and medicine in postmodern times; gender, health and the feminist debate; the sociology of health and ageing; medicine and complementary medicine; and death in postmodernity.

Originally published in 1984, this book focuses, firstly, on how patients interpret and act in response to symptoms of illness; secondly on how social and psychological factors influence the treatment process; and thirdly, on certain kinds of illness where the psychosocial perspective is of particular importance to the providers of health care - for example, chronic or particularly disabling illnesses. It demonstrates how essential it is to bring an interdisciplinary perspective from the social and behavioural sciences to an understanding and interpretation of behaviour in relation to illness. It will be of central concern to all health professionals in training and in practice and to social scientists interested in health care.

This book argues that sport in the era of global or financialised capitalism has undergone a process of fracturing, which requires a re-assessment of longstanding and consensual accounts of traditional-to-modern sporting activity. Considering rival concepts of sport, it presents detailed, illustrative studies of various types of sporting or athletic activity - including soccer, cricket, rugby and track and field - to advance an alternative sociological understanding of sport rooted in the philosophies and theories of critical realism and critical theory. As such, A Critical Realist Theory of Sport will appeal to scholars of sociology and social theory with interests in sport, research methods and critical realist thought.

It is now accepted that many of the determinants of health and health care are social. This volume offers a philosophical and theoretical frame within which the nature and extent of this might be optimally examined. The analysis is rooted in Roy Bhaskar's basic and dialectical critical realism, although it draws also on the critical theory of Jurgen Habermas. It purports to provide an ontologically and epistemologically grounded comparative sociology of contemporary health and health care in the twenty-first century. Carrying a fourfold agenda, the volume sets out a dialectical critical realist frame for a comparative sociology of health and health care; it clarifies sociology's potential and limitations; it suggests a research programme and a series of questions for investigation; and it offers an argument for an action sociology embedded in a dialectical theory of transformative action. This volume will be of interest to students and scholars in the areas of philosophy, sociology and critical realism, as well as those working in health and social care.

Originally published in 1987, this book builds bridges between medical sociology and mainstream theory. It does so by demonstrating in new and important ways how selected theories of major thinkers like Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Freud, Parsons, Goffman, Foucault, Habermas and Offe stand to inform, and in turn be informed by the often highly focused and empirical studies of health, disease and health care found in contemporary medical sociology. The topics covered include doctor-patient interaction and the formation of health policy.

Drawing on a wide range of social theory, as well as empirical inputs from studies of work, neighbourhoods, events, meeting places and online self-help groups, this book suggests that communal forms are constructed on the basis of communicative, material, biographic-cultural, practice-based, and situational layers. The concept of community has long provided an important point of departure for the discipline of sociology, with the conflicting conceptions of community before and into modernity embodied in Ferdinand Toennies' Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft and in Emile Durkheim's Mechanical and Organic Solidarity, providing the focus for debate. Other contributors have maintained an interest in communities as communions, interactional competencies, symbolic identification, tribal connection, and more recently communication. Drawing on such theoretical contributions, as well as empirical inputs, the authors develop a more nuanced concept of community, based on the notion that it is constructed from several different layers. This concept is then presented as a sociological toolbox with which to fuel approaches to examining societal challenges and change. Providing a fresh approach to a core sociological question that also has a wider societal relevance, Communal Forms will be of interest to scholars and students concerned with social issues, and for those with a more general interest in community, society and its development over time.

Contemporary Theorists for Medical Sociology explores the work of key social theorists and the application of their ideas to issues around health and illness. Encouraging students and researchers to use mainstream sociological thought to inform and deepen their knowledge and understanding of the many arenas of health and healthcare, this text discusses and critically reviews the work of several influential contemporary thinkers, including - Foucault, Bauman, Habermas, Luhmann, Bourdieu, Merleau-Ponty, Wallerstein, Archer, Deleuze, Guattari, and Castells. Each chapter includes a critical introduction to the central theses of a major social theorist, ways in which their ideas might inform medical sociology and some worked examples of how their ideas can be applied. Containing contributions from established scholars, rising stars and innovative practitioners, this book is a valuable read for those studying and researching the sociology of health and illness.

Contemporary Theorists for Medical Sociology explores the work of key social theorists and the application of their ideas to issues around health and illness. Encouraging students and researchers to use mainstream sociological thought to inform and deepen their knowledge and understanding of the many arenas of health and healthcare, this text discusses and critically reviews the work of several influential contemporary thinkers, including - Foucault, Bauman, Habermas, Luhmann, Bourdieu, Merleau-Ponty, Wallerstein, Archer, Deleuze, Guattari, and Castells. Each chapter includes a critical introduction to the central theses of a major social theorist, ways in which their ideas might inform medical sociology and some worked examples of how their ideas can be applied. Containing contributions from established scholars, rising stars and innovative practitioners, this book is a valuable read for those studying and researching the sociology of health and illness.

Professor Margaret Archer is a leading critical realist and major contemporary social theorist. This edited collection seeks to celebrate the scope and accomplishments of her work, distilling her theoretical and empirical contributions into four sections which capture the essence and trajectory of her research over almost four decades. Long fascinated with the problem of structure and agency, Archer's work has constituted a decade-long engagement with this perennial issue of social thought. However, in spite of the deep interconnections that unify her body of work, it is rarely treated as a coherent whole. This is doubtless in part due to the unforgiving rigour of her arguments and prose, but also a byproduct of sociology's ongoing compartmentalisation. This edited collection seeks to address this relative neglect by collating a selection of papers, spanning Archer's career, which collectively elucidate both the development of her thought and the value that can be found in it as a systematic whole. This book illustrates the empirical origins of her social ontology in her early work on the sociology of education, as well as foregrounding the diverse range of influences that have conditioned her intellectual trajectory: the systems theory of Walter Buckley, the neo-Weberian analysis of Lockwood, the critical realist philosophy of Roy Bhaskar and, more recently, her engagement with American pragmatism and the Italian school of relational sociology. What emerges is a series of important contributions to our understanding of the relationship between structure, culture and agency. Acting to introduce and guide readers through these contributions, this book carries the potential to inform exciting and innovative sociological research.

The contribution of the German sociologist and philosopher Jurgen Habermas has proved seminal for attempts to understand the nature of social change in the context of global capitalism. This book provides an accessible introduction to his work and shows how his theories can be fruitfully applied to a wide range of topics in the sociology of health and illness including:
* lay health knowledge
* doctor-patient interaction
* health care decision-making
* health inequalities
* new social movements in health
* health care rationing
* the Foucault perspective.
Habermas, Critical Theory and Health will open up both new issues and new lines of empirical enquiry which will be of special interest to teachers and students of social theory and the sociology of health and illness and offers healthcare professionals new perspectives on their practice.

The contribution of the German sociologist and philosopher Jurgen Habermas has proved seminal for attempts to understand the nature of social change in the context of global capitalism. This book provides an accessible introduction to his work and shows how his theories can be fruitfully applied to a wide range of topics in the sociology of health and illness including:
* lay health knowledge
* doctor-patient interaction
* health care decision-making
* health inequalities
* new social movements in health
* health care rationing
* the Foucault perspective.
Habermas, Critical Theory and Health will open up both new issues and new lines of empirical enquiry which will be of special interest to teachers and students of social theory and the sociology of health and illness and offers healthcare professionals new perspectives on their practice.

eBook available with sample pages: HB:041514938X

Contributors ranging from researchers, activists and sex workers re-examine prostitution. The book covers male and female sex workers; their status in law; drugs; health; changing nature of sex work ; pimps and redefining prostitution.

The growth of AIDS has focused renewed attention on the institution of prostitution. In contrast to the moral panic reaction of some sectors of society, very different initiatives are being displayed by other groups in relation to the need to scrutinize the social, moral and legal status of prostitution and to reflect on the arguments in support of or against legalising brothels, paying particular concern to prostitutes' own health. Rethinking Prostitution covers male as well as female sex workers and considers in detail their status in law; drugs; issues of health and health care; the changing nature of sex work; partners, boyfriends and pimps; and the potential for redefining prostitution. By drawing on the expertise of researchers across all aspects of the industry, this up-to-date text focuses on an institution and industry ripe for re-assessment. Rethinking Prostitution will be of considerable interest to students, lecturers and researchers in medical sociology and women's studies, social workers in training and practice as well as the general reader as an area of topical interest and concern.

What does modern medical science know about menstruation? The menstrual cycle is less well understood by physicians than is commonly assumed and medical understanding of disorders associated with it are also limited. This study challenges the orthodox thinking in both society and medicine on menstruation. The authors base their study on women's own experiences and accounts of menstruation and menstrual disorders, drawing on a wide range of studies including their own. The book shows that women are often socialized to interpret the menstruum in negative terms and as something essentially private to be contained within the female domain. Taking an unorthodox approach, the authors incorporate a discussion of how menstruation is perceived within male culture and how the perspective of the medical profession has remained discernibly patriarchal. They show the significance of this in relation to women's experience within the family and at work. They end the book by focusing on the medicalisation of menstruation and the advantages and disadvantages for women of the greater access to the sick role this development implies.

Medical sociology was first recognizable as a distinct area of study in the 1950s and is now probably the largest specialized area of sociology. This collection comprises a comprehensive statement of the history, current concerns and relevance of medical sociology to an understanding of health and health care worldwide. The articles included are genuinely international in two important respects: they represent the best of contemporary scholarship worldwide, and they have applicability to all types of society and health care systems. A general introduction in the first volume provides a review of the development and state of medical sociology internationally as well as a rationale for the collection as a whole. Each of the four volumes also has its own introduction, and each of the four sections within each volume is preceded by a brief rationale. Titles also available in this series include, Child Welfare (November 2004, 4 Volumes, GBP495) and the forthcoming collection Health Care Systems (2005, 3 Volumes, c.GBP395).

It is now accepted that many of the determinants of health and health care are social. This volume offers a philosophical and theoretical frame within which the nature and extent of this might be optimally examined. The analysis is rooted in Roy Bhaskar's basic and dialectical critical realism, although it draws also on the critical theory of Jurgen Habermas. It purports to provide an ontologically and epistemologically grounded comparative sociology of contemporary health and health care in the twenty-first century. Carrying a fourfold agenda, the volume sets out a dialectical critical realist frame for a comparative sociology of health and health care; it clarifies sociology's potential and limitations; it suggests a research programme and a series of questions for investigation; and it offers an argument for an action sociology embedded in a dialectical theory of transformative action. This volume will be of interest to students and scholars in the areas of philosophy, sociology and critical realism, as well as those working in health and social care.

In examining the social and psychological aspects of epilepsy, the author takes not only the perspectives of individuals and their families, but also popular conceptions of the disorder. The result is an illuminating account of the social reality of epilepsy that demonstrates the distinctive contribution that the social sciences can play in understanding illness.

Drawing on a wide range of social theory, as well as empirical inputs from studies of work, neighbourhoods, events, meeting places and online self-help groups, this book suggests that communal forms are constructed on the basis of communicative, material, biographic-cultural, practice-based, and situational layers. The concept of community has long provided an important point of departure for the discipline of sociology, with the conflicting conceptions of community before and into modernity embodied in Ferdinand Toennies' Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft and in Emile Durkheim's Mechanical and Organic Solidarity, providing the focus for debate. Other contributors have maintained an interest in communities as communions, interactional competencies, symbolic identification, tribal connection, and more recently communication. Drawing on such theoretical contributions, as well as empirical inputs, the authors develop a more nuanced concept of community, based on the notion that it is constructed from several different layers. This concept is then presented as a sociological toolbox with which to fuel approaches to examining societal challenges and change. Providing a fresh approach to a core sociological question that also has a wider societal relevance, Communal Forms will be of interest to scholars and students concerned with social issues, and for those with a more general interest in community, society and its development over time.

Professor Margaret Archer is a leading critical realist and major contemporary social theorist. This edited collection seeks to celebrate the scope and accomplishments of her work, distilling her theoretical and empirical contributions into four sections which capture the essence and trajectory of her research over almost four decades. Long fascinated with the problem of structure and agency, Archer's work has constituted a decade-long engagement with this perennial issue of social thought. However, in spite of the deep interconnections that unify her body of work, it is rarely treated as a coherent whole. This is doubtless in part due to the unforgiving rigour of her arguments and prose, but also a byproduct of sociology's ongoing compartmentalisation. This edited collection seeks to address this relative neglect by collating a selection of papers, spanning Archer's career, which collectively elucidate both the development of her thought and the value that can be found in it as a systematic whole. This book illustrates the empirical origins of her social ontology in her early work on the sociology of education, as well as foregrounding the diverse range of influences that have conditioned her intellectual trajectory: the systems theory of Walter Buckley, the neo-Weberian analysis of Lockwood, the critical realist philosophy of Roy Bhaskar and, more recently, her engagement with American pragmatism and the Italian school of relational sociology. What emerges is a series of important contributions to our understanding of the relationship between structure, culture and agency. Acting to introduce and guide readers through these contributions, this book carries the potential to inform exciting and innovative sociological research.

This book presents a novel approach to framing the concept of stigma, and understanding why and how it functions. Graham Scambler extends his analysis beyond common social interactionist understandings of stigma by linking experiences to the larger social structure-the political economy. A Sociology of Shame and Blame contends that stigma is being 'weaponised' as part of a calculated political strategy favouring capital accumulation over justice, and addresses how the shame associated with stigma has taken on the additional dimension of blame through micro-interactions. The unique Insider-Outsider approach that Scambler harnesses draws on micro and macro social theory to identify links between the prevalence of stigma and agency, culture and structure, and will be an original and key reference point for students and scholars across the social and behavioural sciences, including, but not limited to, sociology, anthropology, psychology, public health and social policy.

This is a succinct and comprehensive account of the contemporary sociology of sport. It starts by tracing the key 'moments' in the transition from pre-modern to modern sport, giving detailed accounts of the athletic competition in the ancient games at Olympia; the genesis of modern track-and-field athletics in nineteenth-century England; and the reconstruction by de Coubertin and unfolding of the Olympic movement through the twentieth century. The second section analyses features of sport in detail: The links between exercise, sport and health, including a look at growing rates of obesity and of the role of drug use in society and sport The hyper-commodification of football in the 1990sRepresentations of sport in the media Sports iconography, with sociological portraits of Muhammad Ali and David Beckham The re-emergence of violence in sport The third section critically analyses the various theoretical approaches adopted by sociologists, and presents a distinctive new theoretical framework for understanding the changing role of sport in society in the era of global disorganized capitalism. This is key reading for students and researchers in sociology of sport and leisure, sport science and health.

A new edition of a seminal textbook that offers an up-to-date, concise and theoretically and empirically informed introduction to the core issues in the sociology of health and health care. It includes updated chapters on established themes of social aspects of health, disease and medical practice, social structures and the organisation of health services, as well as brand new chapters on contemporary topics such as globalisation, the sociology of the body and digital technologies. As proven by previous editions, this text has special salience for students of medicine and allied health programmes. Moreover, with increased attention to international perspectives and examples and an accessible writing style, it remains an ideal choice for undergraduate and postgraduate health modules on sociology courses across the world. New to this Edition: - Increased emphasis on global perspectives and international examples - All existing chapters thoroughly updated - New chapters on globalisation and health, re-conceptualising bodies and digital health and health care ensure that the book takes the latest developments in the discipline into account