Book Cover -- Half-Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of contributors -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 Postmodernity and health -- POSTMODERNISM, POSTMODERNITY AND THEIR VICISSITUDES -- OBJECTIFICATION -- RATIONALIZATION -- SUBJECTIFICATION -- POSTMODERNITY, HEALTH AND ILLNESS -- Agency -- Knowledge -- Power -- CONCLUDING REMARKS -- NOTE -- REFERENCES -- Chapter 2 The promise of postmodernism for the sociology of health and medicine -- THREE PROMISES -- THE DETECTIVE AND THE NOMAD -- THE GIFT AND THE PROPER -- NOMADOLOGY FOR BEGINNERS -- REFERENCES -- Chapter 3 Medical sociology and modernity -- A RECONSTRUCTED ENLIGHTENMENT PROJECT AND A CRITICAL SOCIOLOGY -- DISCOURSE ETHICS, JUSTICE AND SOLIDARITY -- CRITICAL SOCIOLOGY, CIVIL SOCIETY AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE -- CRITICAL SOCIOLOGISTS AS INTELLECTUALS OR CRITICS -- ILLUSTRATIONS FROM MEDICAL SOCIOLOGY -- CONCLUSION -- REFERENCES -- Chapter 4 Issues at the interface of medical sociology and public health -- SOCIOLOGY 'OF' PUBLIC HEALTH -- SOCIOLOGY AT THE 'INTERFACE' OF PUBLIC HEALTH: THE QUEST FOR SOCIAL AETIOLOGY -- Social class and health -- Distribution of wealth -- Gender roles -- Structure and social aetiology -- SOCIOLOGY 'IN' PUBLIC HEALTH -- Medicalization -- Design of community public health promotion interventions -- SUMMARY -- REFERENCES -- Chapter 5 Explaining health inequalities -- A LACK OF SOPHISTICATION? -- Class theory -- Class analysis -- A LACK OF EXPLANATORY POWER? -- ASPECTS OF THE THEORETICAL DEFICIT -- SOME POINTERS FOR RESEARCH ON CLASS-RELATED HEALTH INEQUALITIES -- CONCLUSION -- REFERENCES -- Chapter 6 Gender, health and the feminist debate on postmodernism -- FEMINIST THINKING AND THE POSTMODERN -- POSTMODERNISM, GENDER AND HEALTH -- POSTMODERNISM, BIOLOGY AND THE BODY -- ISSUES OF WOMEN'S HEALTH -- FEMALE CIRCUMCISION -- REFERENCES.

Chapter 7 In search of the 'missing body' -- PAIN AND THE (POST) MODERN CONDITION: WHO DESIRES A BODY WITHOUT ORGANS (BwO)? -- PAIN, EMOTIONS AND THE 'MINDFUL' BODY (WITH ORGANS) -- PAIN, NARRATIVE AND CULTURE: FROM FOUNDATIONALISM TO SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISM -- CONCLUSIONS -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- Chapter 8 Ageing, the lifecourse and the sociology of embodiment -- AGEING AND THE LIFECOURSE -- THE SOCIOLOGY OF EMBODIMENT -- TECHNOLOGICAL FUTURES -- REFERENCES -- Chapter 9 Risk, governmentality and the reconceptualization of citizenship -- RISK SOCIETY -- RISK ASSESSMENT AND SOCIAL POLICY -- GOVERNMENTALITY -- CITIZENSHIP -- GOVERNMENTALITY, CITIZENSHIP AND RISK -- CONCLUSION -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- Chapter 10 Medicine and complementary medicine -- MODERNITY AND BIOMEDICINE: THE COUNTER-CULTURAL CRITIQUE -- POSTMODERNITY AND THE RISE OF COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE -- THE CRITIQUE OF POSTMODERNITY IN THE HEALTH CONTEXT -- CONCLUSION -- REFERENCES -- Chapter 11 Postmodern adventures of life and death -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- Index.