The Body: Critical Concepts in Sociology

by Andrew Blaikie (editor), Mike Hepworth (Editor), Mary Holmes (Editor)

This collection offers a uniquely comprehensive guide to the sociology of the body. With a strong historical scope and conceptual framework, it provides an indispensable reference for undergraduate and postgraduate students, and a robust source for scholars working in the area. The central focus is on understanding sociology through the body; what is often described as re-reading sociology in a 'more corporeal light'. This is an interdisciplinary process, drawing on history, feminism, cultural history, art history, anthropology, social psychology, philosophy, medical sociology and media and communications, as well as sociology. While this has been primarily a Western practice, The Body seeks to broaden the perspective to include references that draw on alternative cultural assumptions, beliefs and practices (including Japan, and South America.)

2888 pages, Hardcover

First published October 15, 2003

About the author

Andrew Blaikie is Professor of Historical Sociology at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. His publications include Illigitimacy, Sex and Society: Northeast Scotland 1750 - 1900 (1994) and Ageing and Popular Culture (1999). He is co-editor of the journal Cultural Sociology.