This work discusses how the development of a sociology of emotions is crucial to our understanding of social life. It considers how emotions are social things, controlled and managed in our everyday lives and transcend the divides between mind and body, nature and culture, structure and action. In this way, the text argues, they hold a crucial key to our understanding of social processes and can push forward the boundaries of sociological investigation. Yet the dominance of rationality in Western (masculinist) social thought has led to the relative neglect of emotions as irrational private,...

This text critically examines the notion of human embodiment in both classical and contemporary thought. The ideas of a range of thinkers from Marx to Freud, Foucault to Giddens, Deleuze and Guattari to Irigary and Grosz are assessed in terms of the bodily themes and issues they address. By using the notion of embodiment to transcend the dualist legacies of the past this book argues that the body is not simply a textual effect or discursive construct. Rather, embodiment is the active basis of being in the world and the foundation of self, meaning, culture and society. It is not therefore a...

The Lived Body takes a fresh look at the notion of human embodiment and provides an ideal textbook for undergraduates on the growing number of courses on the sociology of the body.
The authors propose a new approach - an 'Embodied Sociology' - one which makes embodiment central rather than peripheral. They critically examine the dualist legacies of the past, assessing the ideas of a range of key thinkers, from Marx to Freud, Foucault to Giddens, Deleuze to Guattari and Irigary to Grosz, in terms of the bodily themes and issues they address.
They also explore new areas of...

Taking as its point of departure recent developments in health and social theory Health, Medicine and Society brings together a range of eminent, international scholars to reflect upon key issues at the turn of the century.
Contributors draw upon a range of contemporary theories, both modernist and postmodernist, to look at the following themes:
*health and social structure
*the contested nature of the body
*the salience of consumption and risk
*the challenge of emotions
Health, Medicine and Society provides a 'state-of-the-art' assessment of health...

Exploring the sociological aspects of sleep and their links to current health debates, this unique text discusses why sleep has been so neglected in sociological literature and examines significant modern issues such as:

• the 24-hour society
• sleep and work
• homelessness
• dream analysis
• the medicalization and commodification of sleep.

Written by a key international figure in medical sociology, this is the first sociological examination of sleep, making it important reading for academics and advanced students of medical...

Exploring the sociological aspects of sleep and their links to current health debates, this unique text discusses why sleep has been so neglected in sociological literature and examines significant modern issues such as:

• the 24-hour society
• sleep and work
• homelessness
• dream analysis
• the medicalization and commodification of sleep.

Written by a key international figure in medical sociology, this is the first sociological examination of sleep, making it important reading for academics and advanced students of medical sociology,...

Drawing on a wide variety of sources, this book treats the emotions as a universal feature of human life and reflects, and critically comments upon, the turn towards the body and intimacy in social theory.

Drawing on a wide variety of sources, this book treats the emotions as a universal feature of human life and reflects, and critically comments upon, the turn towards the body and intimacy in social theory.