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This book provides a contemporary and comprehensive examination of cancer in everyday life, drawing on qualitative research with people living with cancer, their family members and health professionals. It explores the evolving and enduring affects of cancer for individuals, families and communities, with attention to the changing dynamics of survivorship, including social relations around waiting, uncertainty, hope, wilfulness, obligation, responsibility and healing. Challenging simplistic deployments of survivorship and drawing on contemporary and classical social theory, it critically examines survivorship through innovative qualitative methodologies including interviews, focus groups, pa...
The profile of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has risen dramatically over the last decade and cancer patients represent its most prolific users. As a result, the NHS and UK cancer services are attempting to develop a wider range of therapeutic options for patients. Despite such developments, little is known about why cancer patients use CAM, its perceived benefits and the perspectives of the doctors and nurses involved. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in the UK, Therapeutic Pluralism includes over 120 interviews with cancer patients and professionals, plus innovative ‘diary’ data which, for the first time, detail the experiences of CAM users. It gives a systematic analysis o...
An inevitable and universal experience, dying is experienced by individuals in different ways, often related to the character of our relationships, family structures, gender identities, cultural backgrounds, and economic means. Drawing on extensive qualitative fieldwork with patients, carers and health professionals in Australia and the United Kingdom, Dying: A Social Perspective on the End of Life provides a critical examination of the different spheres of dying, in social and cultural context. Exploring complex issues such as the politics of assisted dying, negotiating medical futility, gender and dying, the desire for redemption, the moralities of 'the good fight' and the lived experience...
This authoritative collection is the first wide-ranging overview dedicated to traditional, complementary and integrative medicine (TCIM) and its scientific study. Compiled by an expert editorial team, it is an essential guide to the vast and ever-growing international literature on TCIM. Contributions come from practitioners and academics drawn from a diverse range of disciplines and professions across the globe. From perspectives on the significance of TCIM within public health policy to discourses on its influence in fields such as psychiatry and sociology, discrete chapters come together to provide an international map of the contemporary research, key debates and core issues which shape ...
An inevitable and universal experience, dying is experienced by individuals in different ways, often related to the character of our relationships, family structures, gender identities, cultural backgrounds, and economic means. Drawing on extensive qualitative fieldwork with patients, carers and health professionals in Australia and the United Kingdom, Dying: A Social Perspective on the End of Life provides a critical examination of the different spheres of dying, in social and cultural context. Exploring complex issues such as the politics of assisted dying, negotiating medical futility, gender and dying, the desire for redemption, the moralities of 'the good fight' and the lived experience...
This book explores the social, political and theoretical underpinnings of the men's health field. Written by experts in the field, it provides a comprehensive understanding of the relationships between cultural understandings and health-related issues. It looks at important issues such as prostate cancer, chest pain and heart disease and how men experience such problems. It examines sexuality, mental illness and ethnicity as well as the role that sport can play in men's health outcomes.
This volume engages with questions of justice and equality, and how these can be achieved in modern society. It explores how theory and research can inform policy and practice to bring about real change in people’s lives, helping readers understand and interrogate patterns and causes of inequality, while investigating how these might be remedied. Chapters outline ways in which theories of justice inform and are factored into effective actions, programmes and interventions. The book includes an international selection of case studies. These range from global inequalities in development and health to cross-border conflict; from gender justice to disability violence; from child protection to ...
This exciting Second Edition provides an overview of the field of visual research by drawing on the contributions of traditions as diverse as semiotics, ethnomethodology, symbolic interactionism and material culture studies and by demonstrating their potential application for the visual researcher. The new edition includes fully updated exercises which show students how `low-tech, low-budget' visual research can provide methodologically sophisticated ways of testing and developing cultural theory. The book also addresses the ethical considerations that are relevant to visual researchers. Generously illustrated with images and diagrams, this new edition is the perfect companion to those doing visual research projects and writing dissertations and theses.
Preface: Embodied awakenings : on love, loss, and learning to be human -- The body as a site of politics : on choice & control -- Beyond monks and mushrooms : humility and autonomy, refigured -- Humility, autonomy and birth as a site of politics : choice and control, risk and resistance -- Arguments over ends : hospice and how we die -- War-worn subjects : veterans, PTSD and the VA mental health complex -- Ethical sources of political strength : humility, autonomy and systems-challenging praxis.
Men drink too much alcohol, eat unhealthy food and avoid going to the doctors until they are seriously ill. Indeed, some say being masculine is bad for men's health. But is the situation so simple? This deeply engaging book explores both the psychological and sociological factors that affect men and their health. It investigates how notions of 'maleness' impact on the individual's approach to health and take-up of services, and provides clear foundations for best practice in care. Part 1 of the book explores and sets the theoretical scene. It asks why disparate fields have not previously been brought together and what theoretical frameworks could be utilised to assist in this process. Parts 2 and 3 consider empirical work in relation to men, health and illness, providing critical rather than simply descriptive accounts. Bringing together an international collection of contributors, Men, Masculinities and Health provides fresh ideas for practice; creating a fertile terrain for future debate that will excite all those interested in gender issues.