Sociology of Health and Illness

Offering important nuances and crucial insights into diverse gender identities and trans-related healthcare inequalities, this ground-breaking research marks an important contribution to the wider fields of gender studies, LGBTQ scholarship and medical policy.

This book brings together perspectives from social science, health-care and pastoral theology, looking at the way death is handled in contemporary society and the sensitive ethical and practical dilemmas facing nurses, social workers, doctors and chaplains.

An anthropologist visits the frontiers of genetics, medicine, and technology to ask: whose values are guiding gene-editing experiments, and what are the implications for humanity?

This interdisciplinary activist research project shows the health and well-being impacts of transnational migration on Ecuadorean families. Roberta Villalón documents the intersection of social inequalities and migration and health policies, and how individual and collective action challenges marginalising structures and fosters social justice.

Despite being a widely recognised phenomenon, PMS remains difficult to define clinically, with no universally agreed diagnostic criteria or shortlist of deterministic symptoms. This book aims to accurately define and explain cyclical experiences and debunk the myth of the hysterical female, once and for all.

This topical and authoritative book examines how the regulation of doctors has been modernised by the introduction of the quality assurance process medical revalidation. In doing so, it questions if there indeed is evidence to support the argument that revalidation serves the public interest by ensuring individual doctors are fit to practice.

Health and legal experts from England and Canada consider the influence of medical doctors on reforms in this comparative study. With reflections on participation since the inception of publicly-funded healthcare systems, they show how the status of doctors affects change.

This crucial contemporary study reviews the evolving role of local authorities in health, social care and wellbeing. Health and policy experts survey disparities across Britain, share case studies of strategies and consider authorities’ interaction with local and central government.

This book critiques the popular claim that ‘more information’ equates to ‘better health’ and explores the potential challenges related to people’s changing relationships with traditional health systems as access to, and control over data shifts.

It is often claimed that the UK is unusually attached to its National Health Service, and the last decade has seen increasingly visible displays of gratitude and love. This book offers a timely critique of both the potential, and the dysfunctions, of Britain’s complex love affair with its healthcare system.

Drawing on international perspectives and research, this book explores the experiences of sex and sexuality in individuals and groups living with HIV in later life (50+).

Re-examining health, healthcare and societal health using the latest data and research, this book addresses definitions of health, changes in health over time and the contribution of healthcare. It also suggests ways of effectively tackling obstacles to improving health and healthcare in 21st century Britain.