The End of Stigma? Changes in the Social Experience of Long-Term Illness

This innovative book investigates the roots of contemporary experiences of stigma, throwing new light on the phenomenon by examining a variety of long-term conditions. Behaviour, lifestyle and identity are no longer the results of mass-production by social class and nation, but increasingly the quirky and unique eccentricities of the individual as consumer, reflexive citizen and free agent. But if the hallmark of the post-modern world is endless variety and unlimited sub-cultural freedom, should we not be witnessing "The End of Stigma"? The book takes Fukuyama’s notion of "The End of History" and examines contemporary challenges to the stigma associated with chronic illness. Award-winning author Gill Green examines cases of HIV, mental illness and substance misuse, to provide new insights into stigma in health. She demonstrates that people with long-term conditions refuse to be defined by their condition and highlights their increasingly powerful voice. The End of Stigma? will be of interest to a wide range of students and health professionals in medical sociology, health studies and social care.

1.Challenging Stigma 2. Stigma: changing conceptual frameworks 3. Technological, personal and organizational challenges to stigma and exclusion 4. Technological challenge to stigma: HIV and the advent of HAART 5. Personal challenge to stigma: substance misuse and the construction of the moral self 6. "Reclaiming Bedlam": Organizational challenge to the stigma of mental illness 7. Is the end of stigma associated with long-term conditions in sight?

Gill Green is a Professor of Medical Sociology at the University of Essex, UK. Her main research interest is the experiential and social consequences of long-term illness.