The Body and Society: Explorations in Social Theory

Front Cover
SAGE, Apr 18, 2008 - Social Science - 296 pages

"This truly deserves to be considered a classic and I strongly encourage my students to read it from cover to cover. Turner′s work on the body needs to be considered in its own right within courses on the sociology of the body."
- Dr Robert Meadows, Surrey University

"Remains the foundational text for courses in the sociology of the body, replete with insights and a depth of analysis that has largely inspired an entire new area of studies across the social sciences."
- Dr Michael Drake, Hull University

"This is THE contemporary text for both academics and students exploring the sociology of the body."
- Jessica Clark, University Campus Suffolk

This is a fully revised edition of a book that may fairly claim to have re-opened the sociology of the body as a legitimate area of enquiry. Providing an unparalleled guide to all aspects of the subject, each chapter has been revised and updated while the book contains new material that reflects both recent changes in the field and Turner′s developing position on the centrality of vulnerability.

Assured and innovative, this book provides the most authoritative statement of work on the sociology of the body by one of the leading writers in the field.

 

Contents

1 The Mode of Desire
17
2 Sociology and the Body
33
3 The Body and Religion
57
4 Bodily Order
77
5 Eves Body
101
6 The End of Patriarchy?
119
7 The Disciplines
135
8 Government of the Body
151
9 Disease and Disorder
173
10 Ontology of Difference
192
11 Bodies in Motion Towards an Aesthetic of Dance
213
12 The Body and Boredom The New Longevity
227
13 Epilogue Vulnerability and Values
242
References
263
Index
277
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About the author (2008)

Bryan S. Turner is Professor of Sociology in the Asian Research Institute (ARI) at the National University of Singapore. Previously he was Professor of Sociology in the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cambridge from 1998-2005. His research interests include globalization and religion, concentrating on such issues as religious conflict and the modern state, religious authority and electronic information, religious, consumerism and youth cultures, human rights and religion, the human body, medical change, and religious cosmologies. He is Joint Chief Editor of the journal Citizenship Studies and serves on the editorial boards of several prestigious journals.

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