The Blackwell Companion to Medical Socicolgy -- Contents -- List of Contributors -- Preface -- PART I SUBSTANTIVE TOPICS -- 1 Medical Sociology and Sociological Theory -- 2 Health and Culture -- 3 The Sociology of the Body -- 4 Health and Social Stratification -- 5 From Women's Health to a Gender Analysis of Health -- 6 Work Stress and Health -- 7 Migration, Health, and Stress -- 8 Health Professions and Occupations -- 9 The Convergence and Divergence of Modern Health Care Systems -- PART II REGIONAL PERSPECTIVES -- The Americas -- 10 The American Health Care System: Entering the Twenty-first Century with High Risk, Major Challenges, and Great Opportunities -- 11 The Evolution of Health Care in Canada: Toward Community or Corporate Control? -- 12 Medical Sociology in Mexico -- 13 Social Science and Health in Brazil -- Western Europe -- 14 Medical Sociology in Great Britain -- 15 The French Paradoxes -- 16 Medical Sociology in Germany -- 17 Society, Health, and Health Care in Sweden -- Russia and Eastern Europe -- 18 The Russian Health Care Experiment: Transition of the Health Care System and Rethinking the Sociology of Medicine -- 19 In and Out of Communism: The Macrosocial Context of Health in Poland -- 20 Transformation of the Health Care System in the Czech Republic - A Sociological Perspective -- Africa -- 21 Health and Health Care in South Africa Against an African Background -- The Middle East -- 22 Health, Health Care, and Medical Education in the Arab World -- 23 Health and Health Care in Israel -- Asia and the Pacific Region -- 24 Medicine and Health Care in Australia -- 25 Health, Illness, and Health Policy in Japan -- 26 The Great Reversal: Transformation of Health Care in the People's Republic of China -- Index.