Self-care: Embodiment, Personal Autonomy and the Shaping of Health Consciousness

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Routledge, Jun 2, 2004 - Social Science - 208 pages
This book examines the widespread cultural and political consequences of the proliferation of popular health advice. It provides a key theoretical contribution to the sociological study of health and embodiment by illuminating the processes of social change that have transformed how individuals care for themselves and the ways in which power and desire now shape health behaviour.
Self-Care will be of essential interest to students and academics working within the fields of sociology, health and social welfare.
 

Contents

Acknowledgements
You are your own saviour and your own worst enemy
Learning to care for ones self
Sending the health message
Natural alternatives
Selfcare and antiinstitutional politics
The nagging state
Theorizing Americas obsession with mundane health behaviour
Governing ones self
Reflexivity rationalization and health risks
Technological salvation or more human solutions?
Towards a socialecological approach to selfcare promotion
Bibliography
Index
Copyright

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About the author (2004)

Christopher Ziguras is Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the Globalism Institute at RMIT University. He is editor of The International Publishing Services Market (with Bill Cope, 2002) and has published numerous articles examining the impact of rationalization, commodification and electronic mediation on the constitution of identity, particularly in international education and health promotion.

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