Health, Culture and Religion in South Asia brings together top international scholars from a range of social science disciplines to critically explore the interplay of local cultural and religious practices in the delivery and experiences of health in South Asia. This groundbreaking text provides much needed insight into the relationships between health, culture, community, livelihood, and the nation-state, and in particular, the recent struggles of disadvantaged groups to gain access to health care in South Asia.

The book brings together anthropologists, sociologists, economists, health researchers and development specialists to provide the reader with an interdisciplinary approach to the study of South Asian health and a comprehensive understanding of cutting edge research in this area. Addressing key issues affecting a range of geographical areas including India, Nepal and Pakistan, this text will be essential reading for students and researchers interested in Asian Studies and for those interested in gaining a better understanding of health in developing countries.

This book was published as a special issue of South Asian History and Culture.

This book is a critical response to a range of problems – some theoretical, others empirical – that shape questions surrounding the lived experience of suffering. It explores how moral and ethical questions of personal suffering are experienced, contested, negotiated and institutionalised. Bodies and Suffering investigates the moral labour and significance invested in actions to care for others, or in failing to do so. It also explores circumstances – personal, political and social – under which that which is perceived as non-moral becomes moral. Drawing on case studies and empirical research, Bodies and Suffering examines the idea of the suffering body across different cultures and contexts and the experience and treatment of these suffering bodies. The book draws on theories of affect, embodiment, the phenomenology of illness and moralities of care, to produce a nuanced understanding of suffering as being located across the assumed borders of time, space, bodies, persons and things. Suitable for bioethicists, medical anthropologists, health sociologists and body studies scholars, Bodies and Suffering will also be of use on health science courses as essential reading on suffering bodies, mental health and morality and ethics issues.

This volume engages with questions of justice and equality, and how these can be achieved in modern society. It explores how theory and research can inform policy and practice to bring about real change in people's lives, helping readers understand and interrogate patterns and causes of inequality, while investigating how these might be remedied. Chapters outline ways in which theories of justice inform and are factored into effective actions, programmes and interventions. The book includes an international selection of case studies. These range from global inequalities in development and health to cross-border conflict; from gender justice to disability violence; from child protection to disability-inclusive research; from illicit drug use to torture prevention; and from prison wellbeing to sexual and reproductive health and rights. Together, contributors explore: how social science and humanities scholarship can lead to a better understanding of, and capacity to respond to, key social issues and problems the importance of normative reflection and a concern for principles of justice in pursuit of social change the importance of community voice and grassroots action in the pursuit of justice, equity and equality. Envisioning a better world - in which concern for the just treatment of all trumps the pursuit of privilege and inequality - Practical Justice: Principles, Practice and Social Change will appeal to students and academics in disciplines as diverse as philosophy, political science, sociology, anthropology, geography and education, and in fields such as policy studies, criminology, healthcare, social work and social welfare.

This book provides a contemporary and comprehensive examination of cancer in everyday life, drawing on qualitative research with people living with cancer, their family members and health professionals. It explores the evolving and enduring affects of cancer for individuals, families and communities, with attention to the changing dynamics of survivorship, including social relations around waiting, uncertainty, hope, wilfulness, obligation, responsibility and healing. Challenging simplistic deployments of survivorship and drawing on contemporary and classical social theory, it critically examines survivorship through innovative qualitative methodologies including interviews, focus groups, participant produced photos and solicited diaries. In assembling this panoramic view of cancer in the twenty-first century, it also enlivens core debates in sociology, including questions around individual agency, subjectivity, temporality, normativity, resistance, affect and embodiment. A thoughtful account of cancer embedded in the undulations of the everyday, narrated by its subjects and those who informally and formally care for them, Survivorship: A Sociology of Cancer in Everyday Life outlines new ways of thinking about survivorship for sociologists, health and medical researchers and those working in cancer care settings.

Complementary and integrative medicine (CIM) has become big business internationally, in particular with regards to a range of women's health issues. With this context in mind, Women's Health and Complementary and Integrative Medicine constitutes a valuable and timely resource for those looking to understand, initiate and expand CIM research and evidence-based debate with regards to a wide range of women's health care issues. The collection brings together leading international CIM researchers from Australia, the USA, the UK, Germany and Canada, with backgrounds and expertise in health social science, statistics, qualitative methodology, clinial trial design, clinical pharmacology, health services research and public health. Contributors draw upon their own CIM research work and experience to explain and review core research and practice issues pertinent to the contemporary field of CIM and its future development with regards to women's health. The book outlines the core issues, challenges and opportunities facing the CIM-women's health field and its study and will provide insight and inspiration for those practising, studying and/or researching the contemporary relations between CIM and women's health and health care.

This volume engages with questions of justice and equality, and how these can be achieved in modern society. It explores how theory and research can inform policy and practice to bring about real change in people's lives, helping readers understand and interrogate patterns and causes of inequality, while investigating how these might be remedied. Chapters outline ways in which theories of justice inform and are factored into effective actions, programmes and interventions. The book includes an international selection of case studies. These range from global inequalities in development and health to cross-border conflict; from gender justice to disability violence; from child protection to disability-inclusive research; from illicit drug use to torture prevention; and from prison wellbeing to sexual and reproductive health and rights. Together, contributors explore: how social science and humanities scholarship can lead to a better understanding of, and capacity to respond to, key social issues and problems the importance of normative reflection and a concern for principles of justice in pursuit of social change the importance of community voice and grassroots action in the pursuit of justice, equity and equality. Envisioning a better world - in which concern for the just treatment of all trumps the pursuit of privilege and inequality - Practical Justice: Principles, Practice and Social Change will appeal to students and academics in disciplines as diverse as philosophy, political science, sociology, anthropology, geography and education, and in fields such as policy studies, criminology, healthcare, social work and social welfare.

An inevitable and universal experience, dying is experienced by individuals in different ways, often related to the character of our relationships, family structures, gender identities, cultural backgrounds, and economic means. Drawing on extensive qualitative fieldwork with patients, carers and health professionals in Australia and the United Kingdom, Dying: A Social Perspective on the End of Life provides a critical examination of the different spheres of dying, in social and cultural context. Exploring complex issues such as the politics of assisted dying, negotiating medical futility, gender and dying, the desire for redemption, the moralities of 'the good fight' and the lived experience of bodily disintegration, this book links novel theoretical ideas within sociology to cutting-edge empirical data collected in palliative and end-of-life care contexts. A theoretically engaged understanding of the social mediation of the end of life, Dying: A Social Perspective on the End of Life also sheds light on the manner in which the end of life can be shaped by major economic, cultural and socio-cultural shifts including neo-liberalism, individualisation, medicalisation, professionalisation and detraditionalisation. As such, it will appeal to social science, health and medical researchers interested in the end of life, as well as those working in palliative and end-of-life care settings.

With new methods of treatment standardisation resulting in various benefits for patient outcomes, evidence-based medicine and evidence-based practice have emerged as defining features of western healthcare provision in recent years. Most health professions are now adopting some form of 'evidence-based' framework for clinical training and practice. However, the rise of evidence-based healthcare has drawn sustained criticism regarding the limits of trial based evidence, the reductive character of epidemiological study designs, and the potential for an erosion of the importance of lay perspectives and clinical judgement. Evidence-Based Healthcare in Context introduces readers to the social, cultural and historical underpinnings of 'evidence' in healthcare, critically examining questions about what constitutes 'evidence' and 'effectiveness' from perspectives outside medicine, including those of patients, complementary medicine and midwifery. It focuses on the application of contemporary theoretical debates around the nature of medical and health knowledge, providing readers with a series of critical analyses of the production, application and translation of 'evidence' in a range of healthcare contexts. Featuring cutting edge work from leading social scientists in the UK, US, Canada, Norway, Australia and New Zealand, this volume draws on the latest empirical research to provide a thorough critical overview of this important field of health research.

With new methods of treatment standardisation resulting in various benefits for patient outcomes, evidence-based medicine and evidence-based practice have emerged as defining features of western healthcare provision in recent years. Most health professions are now adopting some form of 'evidence-based' framework for clinical training and practice. However, the rise of evidence-based healthcare has drawn sustained criticism regarding the limits of trial based evidence, the reductive character of epidemiological study designs, and the potential for an erosion of the importance of lay perspectives and clinical judgement. Evidence-Based Healthcare in Context introduces readers to the social, cultural and historical underpinnings of 'evidence' in healthcare, critically examining questions about what constitutes 'evidence' and 'effectiveness' from perspectives outside medicine, including those of patients, complementary medicine and midwifery. It focuses on the application of contemporary theoretical debates around the nature of medical and health knowledge, providing readers with a series of critical analyses of the production, application and translation of 'evidence' in a range of healthcare contexts. Featuring cutting edge work from leading social scientists in the UK, US, Canada, Norway, Australia and New Zealand, this volume draws on the latest empirical research to provide a thorough critical overview of this important field of health research.

Drawing on comparative fieldwork in the UK, Pakistan and Australia, this book provides the first systematic assessment of pathways and access to CAM and how it is used in health practice and by individuals with cancer.

Giving fresh and invaluable insights into how differing health and societal structures influence the use complementary and alternative medicine, the book explores:

• the empirical, theoretical, and policy context for the study of CAM/TM and cancer
• the history and character of the eight support groups in which fieldwork took place in the UK, Australia and Pakistan
• the nature and structure of patient support groups' history, affiliation and evolution
• how groups function on a day-to-day basis
• the extent to which what is being offered in these CAM-oriented groups is in any way innovative and challenging to the therapeutic and organisational mainstream
• the value of sociological work in the field which is not tied to immediate and narrow policy objectives.

This is an essential resource for those studying complementary and alternative medicine sociologically, to those involved in the provision of cancer care on a day-to-day basis, and to those looking to establish a more informed (evidence-based) policy.

Complementary and integrative medicine (CIM) has become big business internationally, in particular with regards to a range of women's health issues. With this context in mind, Women's Health and Complementary and Integrative Medicine constitutes a valuable and timely resource for those looking to understand, initiate and expand CIM research and evidence-based debate with regards to a wide range of women's health care issues. The collection brings together leading international CIM researchers from Australia, the USA, the UK, Germany and Canada, with backgrounds and expertise in health social science, statistics, qualitative methodology, clinial trial design, clinical pharmacology, health services research and public health. Contributors draw upon their own CIM research work and experience to explain and review core research and practice issues pertinent to the contemporary field of CIM and its future development with regards to women's health. The book outlines the core issues, challenges and opportunities facing the CIM-women's health field and its study and will provide insight and inspiration for those practising, studying and/or researching the contemporary relations between CIM and women's health and health care.

Health, Culture and Religion in South Asia brings together top international scholars from a range of social science disciplines to critically explore the interplay of local cultural and religious practices in the delivery and experiences of health in South Asia. This groundbreaking text provides much needed insight into the relationships between health, culture, community, livelihood, and the nation-state, and in particular, the recent struggles of disadvantaged groups to gain access to health care in South Asia. The book brings together anthropologists, sociologists, economists, health researchers and development specialists to provide the reader with an interdisciplinary approach to the study of South Asian health and a comprehensive understanding of cutting edge research in this area. Addressing key issues affecting a range of geographical areas including India, Nepal and Pakistan, this text will be essential reading for students and researchers interested in Asian Studies and for those interested in gaining a better understanding of health in developing countries. This book was published as a special issue of South Asian History and Culture.

This book provides a contemporary and comprehensive examination of cancer in everyday life, drawing on qualitative research with people living with cancer, their family members and health professionals. It explores the evolving and enduring affects of cancer for individuals, families and communities, with attention to the changing dynamics of survivorship, including social relations around waiting, uncertainty, hope, wilfulness, obligation, responsibility and healing. Challenging simplistic deployments of survivorship and drawing on contemporary and classical social theory, it critically examines survivorship through innovative qualitative methodologies including interviews, focus groups, participant produced photos and solicited diaries. In assembling this panoramic view of cancer in the twenty-first century, it also enlivens core debates in sociology, including questions around individual agency, subjectivity, temporality, normativity, resistance, affect and embodiment. A thoughtful account of cancer embedded in the undulations of the everyday, narrated by its subjects and those who informally and formally care for them, Survivorship: A Sociology of Cancer in Everyday Life outlines new ways of thinking about survivorship for sociologists, health and medical researchers and those working in cancer care settings.

Drawing on comparative fieldwork in the UK, Pakistan and Australia, this book provides the first systematic assessment of pathways and access to CAM and how it is used in health practice and by individuals with cancer.

Giving fresh and invaluable insights into how differing health and societal structures influence the use complementary and alternative medicine, the book explores:

• the empirical, theoretical, and policy context for the study of CAM/TM and cancer
• the history and character of the eight support groups in which fieldwork took place in the UK, Australia and Pakistan
• the nature and structure of patient support groups' history, affiliation and evolution
• how groups function on a day-to-day basis
• the extent to which what is being offered in these CAM-oriented groups is in any way innovative and challenging to the therapeutic and organisational mainstream
• the value of sociological work in the field which is not tied to immediate and narrow policy objectives.

This is an essential resource for those studying complementary and alternative medicine sociologically, to those involved in the provision of cancer care on a day-to-day basis, and to those looking to establish a more informed (evidence-based) policy.

This book is a critical response to a range of problems - some theoretical, others empirical - that shape questions surrounding the lived experience of suffering. It explores how moral and ethical questions of personal suffering are experienced, contested, negotiated and institutionalised. Bodies and Suffering investigates the moral labour and significance invested in actions to care for others, or in failing to do so. It also explores circumstances - personal, political and social - under which that which is perceived as non-moral becomes moral. Drawing on case studies and empirical research, Bodies and Suffering examines the idea of the suffering body across different cultures and contexts and the experience and treatment of these suffering bodies. The book draws on theories of affect, embodiment, the phenomenology of illness and moralities of care, to produce a nuanced understanding of suffering as being located across the assumed borders of time, space, bodies, persons and things. Suitable for bioethicists, medical anthropologists, health sociologists and body studies scholars, Bodies and Suffering will also be of use on health science courses as essential reading on suffering bodies, mental health and morality and ethics issues.

Complementary and integrative medicine (CIM) has become big business. Alongside the increased consumption of complementary medicine and the swelling numbers of complementary health practitioners has emerged a growing interest in these medicines and therapies from within the ranks of conventional primary health care. At the level of practice and beyond, a culture of confrontation and antagonism has begun to be replaced by a focus upon potential integration, collaboration and common ground.With these significant developments in mind, this ground-breaking book is a valuable and timely addition to the CIM and primary health care research literature. The collection outlines the core issues, challenges and opportunities facing the CIM-primary health care interface and its study and will provide insight and inspiration for those practising, studying and researching the contemporary relations between CIM and primary health care.The book is the first to be authored by leading international CIM-primary health care researchers from diverse disciplines and backgrounds, including health social science, statistics, qualitative methodology, general practice, clinical trials design, clinical pharmacology, health services research and public health. All contributors are active CIM-primary health care researchers and their extensive research and practice experience helps lend a unique immediacy and richness to the contributions and collection.

The profile of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has risen dramatically over the last decade and cancer patients represent its most prolific users. As a result, the NHS and UK cancer services are attempting to develop a wider range of therapeutic options for patients. Despite such developments, little is known about why cancer patients use CAM, its perceived benefits and the perspectives of the doctors and nurses involved. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in the UK, Therapeutic Pluralism includes over 120 interviews with cancer patients and professionals, plus innovative 'diary' data which, for the first time, detail the experiences of CAM users. It gives a systematic analysis of issues such as: The development of patient preferences and influences on decision making Expectations of CAM and interpretations of 'success' in cancer treatment The nature and importance of 'evidence' and 'effectiveness' for patients The organisational dynamics involved in integrating CAM into the NHS Pathways to CAM and the role of the Internet The role of oncology clinicians in patients' experiences of cancer and their use of CAMs Therapeutic Pluralism is essential reading for students and researchers of medical sociology, complementary and alternative medicine and cancer. It will also be useful to medical and health professionals, and policy-makers with an interest in complementary and alternative medicine.

The profile of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has risen dramatically over the last decade and cancer patients represent its most prolific users. As a result, the NHS and UK cancer services are attempting to develop a wider range of therapeutic options for patients. Despite such developments, little is known about why cancer patients use CAM, its perceived benefits and the perspectives of the doctors and nurses involved. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in the UK, Therapeutic Pluralism includes over 120 interviews with cancer patients and professionals, plus innovative 'diary' data which, for the first time, detail the experiences of CAM users.It gives a systematic analysis of issues such as: the development of patient preferences and influences on decision making; expectations of CAM and interpretations of 'success' in cancer treatment; the nature and importance of 'evidence' and 'effectiveness' for patients; the organisational dynamics involved in integrating CAM into the NHS Pathways to CAM and the role of the Internet; and the role of oncology clinicians in patients' experiences of cancer and their use of CAMs. Therapeutic Pluralism is essential reading for students and researchers of medical sociology, complementary and alternative medicine and cancer. It will also be useful to medical and health professionals, and policy-makers with an interest in complementary and alternative medicine.