This book examines British and American women's narratives of cosmetic surgery collected between 1995 and 2007, with particular attention to what those narratives say about the contemporary status of cosmetic surgery and 'local' ideas about its legitimate and illegitimate uses. The book argues that British and American women employ justificatory strategies that normalize aesthetic procedures by aligning them with nationally-specific notions of 'appropriate' medical treatment. Consumers' narratives are also informed by 'global' discourses that portray cosmetic surgery as a lifestyle choice and a tool for holding one's own in the competitive marketplace of employment or heterosexual romance. Such meanings are in turn reworked by women in their own accounting, at the same time that accounts are limited by culturally-available symbolic resources and institutional structures. Where the general and specific are incompatible - as is more often the case in the British context - women respond by stressing the power of externally-imposed appearance mandates and their entitlement to self-care.

Globalization has become perhaps the most central--and one of the most contested--terms in the social sciences in the present day. If one wishes to understand the conditions in which different groups of people live today, it seems increasingly impossible to ignore the aspects of those conditions that are seen to be characterized, or influenced, by "global" forces, movements and phenomena. Regarding particular phenomena, no matter how apparently "local" or parochial in nature, as being located within "global" flows or systems or structures, seems today to be a very necessary component of any effective sort of social investigation. Many social scientific scholars in the last decade or so have engaged in a "global turn" in their thinking, investigating key areas and facets of human life--such as work, economy, cities, politics, and media--in terms of how these are being affected, influenced and changed by (what can be taken to be) "globalizing forces." Themes of inter-societal, trans-societal and cross-planetary connections, structures, processes and movements are increasingly central across the social sciences, including sociology, anthropology, geography, political science, economics, international relations, and many humanities disciplines too. Moreover, such themes--and the controversies and polemics often attached to them--have become common currency in many spheres outside the academy, with politicians, businesspeople, political activists and citizens of all varieties taking up ideas associated with "globalization," and deploying them both to make sense of, and also sometimes to try to change, the world around them. This book covers the issues of globalization as they relate to food. Contributors include Carole Counihan, Alan Warde, Pat Caplan, Alex McIntosh, Rick Wilk, Jeff Sobal, Marianne Lien and Krishnendu Ray.

Is any image in modern times more evocative of social change than the computer? Popular mythology ascribes extraordinary powers to computers in the ordering of human affairs. Computers are seen as instruments of social transformation and economic change. Indeed, it is hard not to find computers in the modern workplace, let alone in the home. They are ubiquitous in government offices, businesses large and small alike, the school, and not-for-profit organizations. In this meticulously researched study of computers and computing, authors James B. Rule, Debra Gimlin, and Sylvia Sievers present a fascinating, entertaining, and thought-provoking survey of the use of what may be the most powerful tool in today's workplace. In the chapter entitled "The New York Study: Design and Execution," the authors describe their inspiration for the undertaking of their study, how they designed their research methods, and how they obtained funding for the project. In the chapter "What Computers Do; How Computing Changes," case studies involving businesses that adopted greater computer usage are described, and the authors explain how the new technology was employed for their benefit. In "Employment and Efficiency" time saving and cost-effectiveness qualities of computer technology are explored. And in "Management and Structure," the authors posit the role of the computer in organizational transformation. Computing in Organizations is a timely and relevant work, and will prove of great benefit to strategic consultants, business management personnel, sociologists, and students of information technology.

"Beautifully written, cleverly argued, and skillfully researched, Debra Gimlin's "Body Work goes beyond the argument that the beauty industry exists only to control women. Instead, Gimlin examines women's relationship to beauty from a feminist sociological perspective, finding that women are not dupes of the beauty industry but rather use body work in both empowering and degrading ways. It's about time a sociologist delved into women's complicated relationship to the beauty industry!"--Verta Taylor, author of "Rock-a-By Baby: Feminism, Self-Help, and Postpartum Depression

"This fascinating study reveals how changing the body is really an effort to reconstruct the self-from aerobics, cosmetic surgery, and hair salon makeovers to therapeutic groups about accepting one's "fat" body. Gimlin fuses theoretical acuity with tender analysis, enabling the reader to engage critically and empathetically with these quotidian social constructionists. With efforts to transform the body becoming ever more frenzied as Baby Boomers age, this book is both timely and important."-- Michael Kimmel, author of "Manhood in America: A Cultural History

"Gimlin effectively demonstrates how the business of beauty is ultimately not about abstruse theories but rather about how women negotiate beauty to transact in everyday life. This perception that beauty may be the one area where the personal is not political recasts all theories previously forwarded on the subject and adds significantly to the literature about the culture of beauty."--Raquel Scherr, author of "Face Value: The Politics of Beauty

"This thoughtful, interesting, and well-written book emphasizes the complexities of contemporary U.S. women as theynegotiate identity through both participation and resistance to dominant beauty ideologies."--Sarah Banet-Weiser, author of "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World

"Much more than a straightforward feminist critique of the beauty industry, "Body Work offers a nuanced and sensitive analysis of the types of work that women do to construct and to maintain an identity with which they can live comfortably, steering clear of representations of women as passive victims of oppressive structures."--Nilufer Isvan, Assistant Professor of Sociology, State University of New York at Stony Brook

Globalization has become perhaps the most central--and one of the most contested--terms in the social sciences in the present day. If one wishes to understand the conditions in which different groups of people live today, it seems increasingly impossible to ignore the aspects of those conditions that are seen to be characterized, or influenced, by "global" forces, movements and phenomena. Regarding particular phenomena, no matter how apparently "local" or parochial in nature, as being located within "global" flows or systems or structures, seems today to be a very necessary component of any effective sort of social investigation. Many social scientific scholars in the last decade or so have engaged in a "global turn" in their thinking, investigating key areas and facets of human life--such as work, economy, cities, politics, and media--in terms of how these are being affected, influenced and changed by (what can be taken to be) "globalizing forces." Themes of inter-societal, trans-societal and cross-planetary connections, structures, processes and movements are increasingly central across the social sciences, including sociology, anthropology, geography, political science, economics, international relations, and many humanities disciplines too. Moreover, such themes--and the controversies and polemics often attached to them--have become common currency in many spheres outside the academy, with politicians, businesspeople, political activists and citizens of all varieties taking up ideas associated with "globalization," and deploying them both to make sense of, and also sometimes to try to change, the world around them. This book covers the issues of globalization as they relate to food. Contributors include Carole Counihan, Alan Warde, Pat Caplan, Alex McIntosh, Rick Wilk, Jeff Sobal, Marianne Lien and Krishnendu Ray.

In the last five years or so, there has been a huge explosion of scholarly work on the history of food and, likewise, pressing problems such as food scares and genetic modification, as well as anorexia and obesity, have become increasingly present in the public consciousness. Drawing on a wide variety of disciplines, this fascinating four-volume collection covers anthropology, sociology, psychology, history, cultural history, land economy, and, outside of the arts and social sciences, disciplines such as health sciences and health economics. An engaging and comprehensive reference, it is undoubtedly a highly useful resource for both student and scholar alike.