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Decolonize Self-Care

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( 91 ratings, 15 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Decolonize Self-Care offers a comprehensive sociological analysis of self-care, tracing its origins as a radical feminist call for bodily autonomy to its modern status as a multi-billion-pound industry dominated by capitalist and racist undertones. Alyson K. Spurgas and Zoe C. Meleo-Erwin argue that truly decolonising self-care requires recognising the exclusionary and appropriative nature of much of the wellness sector and committing to new, inclusive models of care centred on health, pleasure, and community for all.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$3499
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book is ideal for readers interested in sociology, feminist theory, wellness culture critique, and those seeking to understand and challenge systemic inequities in self-care and health industries.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

For radical twentieth-century feminists, it was a rallying cry for bodily autonomy and political power. For influencers and lifestyle brands, it's buying fancy nutrition and body products at a premium. And it has now infiltrated nearly every food, leisure, and pop-culture space as a multi-billion-dollar industry.

What is it? To quote a million memes: it's called self-care.

In Decolonize Self-Care, Alyson K. Spurgas and Zoe C. Meleo-Erwin deliver a comprehensive sociological analysis and scathing critique of the catchphrase's capitalist, racist undertones. To decolonise self-care, they argue, requires a full reckoning with the exclusionary, appropriative nature of most of the wellness industry, but this education is only the first step in the process. We must commit to new models of care and well-being that allow for health, pleasure, and community β€” for everyone.

Series: Decolonize That!

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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Decolonize Self-Care is praised for its fresh and urgent critique of the self-care cultural moment and the wellness industry's commodification, blending sharp insight with wit. Sarah Sharma, Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, highlights the book as smart, laugh-out-loud funny, and vital reading for understanding how to survive capitalist and racist pressures through transformed self-care perspectives and practices.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781682193358

Publisher: OR Books

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 02 March 2023

Country: United States

Imprint: OR Books

Illustration: Illustrations

Contributors:

  • Edited by Bhakti Shringarpure

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 127.0mm

Height: 178.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 286

About the Author

Alyson K. Spurgasis Associate Professor of Sociology and affiliated faculty in the Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Program at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Spurgas researches, writes, and teaches about the sociology of trauma, the politics of desire, and technologies of care from an interdisciplinary and intersectional feminist perspective. They are also the author ofDiagnosing Desire: Biopolitics and Femininity into the Twenty-First Century(The Ohio State University Press, 2020), which won the 2021 Cultural Studies Association First Book Prize. Alyson lives in Brooklyn, New York, with their amazing partner and cat. Check outwww.alysonkspurgas.comfor info about Alyson's writing, teaching, speaking events, and more.

Zoe C. Meleo-Erwinis a qualitative sociologist and former assistant professor of public health. In 2022, she left academia to pursue a career as a user experience researcher in the tech industry. As a scholar, her work focused on the meanings of health and illness, health decision-making, experiences of embodiment, and the ways in which digital technologies facilitate the creation of both identity and community around health and illness. A list of her publications can be found on her website,www.zoemeleoerwin.com

Bhakti Shringarpureis a writer, academic and founding editor ofWarscapesmagazine. She is the author ofCold War Assemblages: Decolonization to Digitaland a regular contributor toThe Los Angeles Review of BooksandAfrica is a Country. She currently runs theRadical Books Collectivewhich pushes for an alternative, inclusive and non-commercial approach to books and reading.

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