The body occupies a prime position in contemporary theoretical work, yet there is no consensus on what it is and what constitutes it. Organizing the Sexed Body brings together a number of different accounts and perspectives on the body, drawing out some of the key connections and disjunctures from this most contested of topics. From revealing attempts at applying abstract body theory to real bodies, to thoughts on the 'virtual' nature of the transgendered body, this volume features fresh and fascinating contributions from some of the leading thinkers and upcoming theorists in the field. Themes that run through the work include the place of the body in theory, the notion of labour in the production of bodies and the transformative potential of bodies on spaces.
Contributors include: David Bell; Gargi Bhattacharyya; Richard Collier; Mark Featherstone; Ruth Holiday; Robyn Longhurst; Leslie J. Moran; Sally R. Munt; John O'Neill; Diane Roberts; Karen Stevenson; Graham Thompson and Stephen Whittle

Full Contributors:
Contributors include: David Bell Staffordshire University, UK Gargi Bhattacharyya, University of Birmingham, UK Richard Collier University of Newcastle, UK Mark Featherstone, University of Keele, UK Ruth Holliday, Staffordshire University, UK Robyn Longhurst University of Waikato, New Zealand, Leslie J. Moran Birkbeck College, London, UK Sally R. Munt University of Brighton, UK John O'Neill York University, Ontario, Canada

From bottle gardens, the bachelor pad and Batman to designer gnomes and monogamy spray, this book uses a diverse range of objects to explore the changing significance of kitsch. With its unique approach to its subject, Kitsch! Cultural politics and taste promises to advance debates in cultural studies and sociology around taste, while providing an invaluable introduction for students and interested readers. Kitsch! examines how the idea of kitsch is mobilised - progressively, as bad taste, as camp and as cool - to inform notions of identity and sensibility. Where most studies proceed from the kitsch object, this book takes the moment of aesthetic judgement as its starting point and attempts to identify the ideological work performed by the category itself. The book poses the strongest challenge to those who argue that taste is democratised in contemporary culture, offering ample evidence that judgements of taste have shifted ground rather than relaxed. Above all, the story of kitsch proposed by the authors is intended to disturb kitsch's reputation as the source of a ready-made sensibility and politics. Kitsch has a history and not, as it has been supposed, an essence and is consequently the site of love, hate, joy, exasperation, irony, nausea and all of the twisted possibilities between. -- .

The essays collected in this volume apply queer theory in a consideration of the human body as a vehicle for understanding relationships between people and place. The book examines the body as an entity constructed by gender, sexuality, race, class, nationality and disability.

Beautyscapes explores the global phenomenon of international medical travel, focusing on patient-consumers seeking cosmetic surgery outside their home country and on those who enable them to access treatment abroad, including surgeons and facilitators. It documents the journeys of those who travel for treatment abroad, as well as the nature and power relations of the IMT industry. Empirically rich and theoretically sophisticated, Beautyscapes draws on key themes of interest to students and researchers interested in globalisation and mobility to explain the nature and growing popularity of cosmetic surgery tourism. Richly illustrated with ethnographic material and with the voices of those directly involved in cosmetic surgery tourism, Beautyscapes explores cosmetic surgery journeys from Australia and China to East-Asia and from the UK to Europe and North Africa. -- .

The representation of organizations and working life in the popular media signifies, but also helps shape, contemporary practice and institutions. Organization-Representation unravels the complex social relationship between organization and its representation, offering new insights into the interaction between the popular images we create and receive, and the power relations that govern society, working life and culture. Representations in Hollywood movies, ethnographic and documentary films, children's literature and the popular and `quality' press replicate the power structures they supposedly describe and consequently help shape contemporary realities. This volume offers rich insights into the relations between culture, power and work. It goes beyond such purely ontological questions to show convincingly that a critical analysis of the relationship between popular culture and the nature of organizational life enhances our understanding of both.

Beautyscapes explores the global phenomenon of international medical travel, focusing on patient-consumers seeking cosmetic surgery outside their home country and on those who enable them to access treatment abroad, including surgeons and facilitators. It documents the journeys of those who travel for treatment abroad, as well as the nature and power relations of the IMT industry. Empirically rich and theoretically sophisticated, Beautyscapes draws on key themes of interest to students and researchers interested in globalisation and mobility to explain the nature and growing popularity of cosmetic surgery tourism. Richly illustrated with ethnographic material and with the voices of those directly involved in cosmetic surgery tourism, Beautyscapes explores cosmetic surgery journeys from Australia and China to East-Asia and from the UK to Europe and North Africa. -- .

Issues around identity, agency and reflexivity are opened up and explored in a refreshing new perspective that deepens our understanding of organization and institutions. Body and Organization thorougly invigorates the study of process and brings the organization to three-dimensional life for a new generation of students and researchers.

From bottle gardens, the bachelor pad and Batman to designer gnomes and monogamy spray, this book uses a diverse range of objects to explore the changing significance of kitsch. With its unique approach to its subject, Kitsch! Cultural politics and taste promises to advance debates in cultural studies and sociology around taste, while providing an invaluable introduction for students and interested readers. Kitsch! examines how the idea of kitsch is mobilised - progressively, as bad taste, as camp and as cool - to inform notions of identity and sensibility. Where most studies proceed from the kitsch object, this book takes the moment of aesthetic judgement as its starting point and attempts to identify the ideological work performed by the category itself. The book poses the strongest challenge to those who argue that taste is democratised in contemporary culture, offering ample evidence that judgements of taste have shifted ground rather than relaxed. -- .

Provides a new interpretation of space and sexuality, with topics ranging from pregnant embodiment to the performance of sexual identities in video diaries, from lesbian geographies to mapping the erotics of the city.

How does a subculture appropriate space within the dominant culture? What is the city's relationship to the body? Geographers from England and New Zealand apply queer theory in their consideration of the human body as a vehicle for understanding relationships between people and place. These provocative essays examine the body as an entity constricted by gender, sexuality, race, class, nationality, and disability. They also look at sexual identity as it relates to communities, and how humans "do" gender through regulated practices such as heterosexuality. Pleasure Zones tackles topics such as the politics of gay men's health; the relationship of sex and death to the city; erotic urban landscapes, and how public policy labels lesbians. Each essay attempts to reconcile queer theory and social and cultural theory with the discipline of geography. The result is an illuminating and accessible look at the formation of personal and collective identities. Building on two decades of geography that recognizes the body as a politicized site of struggle, and applying the perspective of the sexual dissident, Pleasure Zones brings a fascinating variety of human experiences into sharp relief.