Body Culture and Society: An Introduction - Softcover

Hancock, Phillip

9780335204137: Body Culture and Society: An Introduction

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0335204139 ISBN 13: 9780335204137

Publisher: Open University Press, 2001

"Academics and undergraduates alike will welcome this accessible guide to a rich variety of body-related matters. . . an informed and stimulating introduction to the subject." - Chris Shilling, University of Portsmouth

* How and why has the body come to the forefront of sociology?
* How is the body conceptualized in relation to issues of culture and identity?
* What are the limitations of current work on the sociology of the body?

Over the past two decades, a concern with the human body has grown steadily within the social sciences. This timely volume, written by a team of lecturers actively researching and teaching in the field, provides a clear introduction to the significance of the corporeal dimension of life within contemporary sociological thought. It outlines many of the reasons behind this increased sociological fascination with the body, identifying it with a series of broader developments within the current cultural sensibility. Succeeding chapters, each individually authored, examine the place of the body within a range of substantive areas of sociological research - for example disability, consumption, work and old age - developing, in turn, a critical analysis of current research in these areas. With the use of jargon kept to a minimum, and with each chapter providing suggestions for further reading, The Body, Culture and Society is an accessible and lively introduction to the body from a sociological perspective.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

All the authors are members of the Caledonian University Body and Social Theory research group (CUBiST).

Philip Hancock has taught the sociology of work and organizations at several UK universities. He has published in a number of edited collections, as well as journals such as Organization and The Journal of Management Studies.

Bill Hughes is head of the Division of Sociology. His current research focuses on the application of contemporary sociological theory to impairment and disability. He has published in Body & Society and Disability and Society.

Elizabeth Jagger is a lecturer in sociology and Chair of CUBiST. She has published on professional and governmental responses to 'glue-sniffing' in leading policy journals and work from her ongoing research into dating has appeared in Sociology.

Kevin Paterson is a researcher interested in the development of a sociology of impairment and has had several articles published on this subject in both edited collections and the journal Disability and Society.

Rachel Russell lectures in philosophy and the sociology of culture. Her research and publishing activities have recently focused on the interface between ethics and aesthetic experience, and its implication for social theory.

Emmanuelle Tulle-Winton teaches in the field of old age and health, has published in a number of edited collections and journals on issues around the government of old age and old bodies as well as the organizational features of mental health services.

Melissa Tyler lectures in sociology and has published work on gender, aesthetics, organization and the body in several edited collections as well as journals such as Sociology and Gender, Work and Organization.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.