In recent years, the ways in which food is produced, distributed, and consumed have emerged as prominent health and social issues. With rising concern about rates of obesity, food systems have attracted the attention of state actors, leading to both innovative and controversial public health interventions, such as citywide soda bans, -veggie prescription- initiatives, and farm-to-school programs. At the same time, social movement activism has emerged focused on issues related to food and health, including movements for food justice, food safety, farm worker's rights, and community control of...

This book brings together leading scholars from a wide range of disciplines to provide a comprehensive account of the health and well-being of one of the fastest growing segments of the U.S. population: immigrants and their descendants. Re-orientating present-day debates over immigration, it sheds new light on understanding of population health.

At a moment when reproduction is increasingly politicized, this volume explores the breadth of contemporary research on reproduction from the perspective of medical sociology, illuminating the lived experience of reproduction and offering insights to inform sociology and health policy.  Reproduction, Health, and Medicine elucidates the tensions and contradictions between the normal physiologic processes of pregnancy and birth and the sociocultural beliefs, values, and arrangements that shape how we experience these biological phenomena. Investigating a range of reproductive events and...

Research concerning sexual and gender minority (SGM) health has flourished in recent years in conjunction with a period of intense social, political, and legal discourse about SGM persons. While this attention has increased understanding and recognition of SGM experiences, recent advances have often been met with resistance and backlash rooted in social stigma and long histories of discrimination. This volume of Advances in Medical Sociology showcases rich theoretical and empirical contributions on SGM health and wellbeing. The chapters address a variety of topics, drawing from classic and...