Giving Blood: The Institutional Making of Altruism (Routledge Studies in the Sociology of Health and Illness) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1138911941 ISBN 13: 9781138911949

Publisher: Routledge, 2015

Synopsis

Giving Blood represents a new agenda for blood donation research. It explores the diverse historical and contemporary undercurrents that influence how blood donation takes place, and the social meanings that people attribute to the act of giving blood. Drawing from empirical studies conducted in the United States, Canada, France, Australia, China, India, Latin America and Africa, the book’s chapters turn our attention to the evolution of blood donation worldwide, examining:

• the impact of technology advances on blood collection practices
• the shifting approaches to donor recruitment and retention
• the governance and policy issues associated with the establishment of blood clinics
• the political and legal challenges of regulating blood systems.

This innovative examination moves the focus from individual explanations of rates of blood donation to a social, structural explanation. It will appeal to international scholars and students working in the areas of sociology, medical anthropology, health care, public policy, socio-legal studies, comparative politics, organizational management, health and illness, the history of medicine, and public health ethics.

About this title

About the Author:

Johanne Charbonneau is Professor at the Université INRS – Centre Urbanisation Culture et Société.

André Smith is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Review:

This volume follows nicely upon Kieran Healy's work, which focused on the differing organizational contexts of blood donation across Europe and the impact of them on the numbers and variety of blood donors obtained. It goes beyond his work to investigate blood donation systems in a wide range of countries, both developed and developing. In the concluding chapter, the editors do an excellent job of extracting common themes and issues from the extremely varied presentations across the chapters. I would recommend this book to organizational and cultural sociologists, as well as political scientists and students of public health.

―Professor Jane Allyn Piliavin, Conway-Bascom Professor Emerita of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1138911941
• ISBN 13: 9781138911949
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 264
• Editor: Charbonneau Johanne, Smith André