The Body in Everyday Life

We all have a body, but how does it impact upon our day to day life? How we experience our bodies is at once both intensely personal and extremely public. This book sets out to explore how ordinary women, men and children talk about their bodies and how they experience them in a variety of situations. The subject is covered through four central themes--physical and emotional bodies; illness and disability; gender; and ageing.

"The Body in Everyday Life" is the first coherent collection of empirical research and a welcome complement to important theoretical and philosophical developments in the field of medical sociology. This volume brings together a number of leading authors and researchers culminating in a new and fresh approach to the study of the body.

We all have a body, but how does it impact upon our day to day life? This book sets out to explore how ordinary women, men and children talk about their bodies, through four central themes:-* physical and emotional bodies* illness and disability* gender* ageing.A coherent collection of such empirical research, The Body in Everyday Life provides an accessible introduction to the sociology of the body, a field previously dominated by theoretical or philosophical accounts.

Jonathan Watson Health Education Board for Scotland, Edinburgh Bill Bytheway Stratford upon Avon, Julie Johnson Stratford upon Avon, Nick Watson University of Edinburgh, Alexandra Howson University of Edinburgh, Bethan Williams and Julie Barlow both at Coventry University, Sarah Cunningham-Burley University of Edinburgh, Eileen Fairhurst University of Manchester, Gillian Bendelow and Simon Williams both at University of Warwick, Mick Bloor University of Wales Cardiff, Mike Hepworth and Mike Featherstone University of Aberdeen, Deborah Lupton Charles Strut University, Bathurst, Australia, Professor Emily Martin Princeton University, USA.