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The Body

Social and Cultural Dissections
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
The Body is a college-level handbook that offers a comprehensive and accessible overview of sociological and cultural perspectives on the human body. Organised like a traditional anatomical textbook by body parts and processes, it instead provides tools for social and cultural analysis. The book explores the human body within social, cultural, and political contexts, emphasising the multiple and contested meanings of bodily parts and systems.

With case studies and discussion questions drawn from both US and international contexts, it advances critical body studies by addressing bodies in relation to race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, age, health, geography, and citizenship. This sociological framing pays attention to cultural meanings, institutional practices, politics, and social issues, using anatomical references to examine embodiment's social and ethical dimensions.
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Format: Hardback
$44700
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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 university students and scholars in sociology, cultural studies, gender studies, and related fields seeking a critical and comprehensive understanding of the human body beyond biomedical perspectives.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

This college-level handbook offers a comprehensive, accessible overview of sociological and cultural perspectives on the human body. Students will learn about the human body in its social, cultural, and political contexts, with particular emphasis on multiple, contested meanings of the body and body parts.

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

This college-level handbook offers a comprehensive and accessible overview of sociological and cultural perspectives on the human body. Organised along the lines of a standard anatomical textbook delineated by body parts and processes, this volume subverts the expected content in favour of providing tools for social and cultural analysis.

Students will learn about the human body in its social, cultural, and political contexts, with emphasis on multiple, contested meanings of the body, body parts, and systems. Case studies, examples, and discussion questions are both US-based and international. Advancing critical body studies, the book explicitly discusses bodies in relation to race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, age, health, geography, and citizenship status.

The framing is sociological rather than biomedical, attentive to cultural meanings, institutional practices, politics, and social problems. The authors use commonly understood anatomical frames to discuss social, cultural, political, and ethical issues concerning embodiment.

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?

Esteemed academics praise The Body for its originality, accessibility, and interdisciplinary insight. Professor Sarah Franklin highlights its ability to make complex theoretical analyses vivid and relevant through engaging case studies. Jonathan Xavier Inda commends the book for its innovative structure and critical perspective, describing it as a must-read for scholars and students interested in the body’s dynamic, socially embedded nature.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780415821957

Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 06 November 2014

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Routledge

Illustration: 39 Halftones, black and white; 39 Illustrations, black and white

Audience: Tertiary education

DIMENSIONS

Width: 156.0mm

Height: 234.0mm

Weight: 589g

Pages: 318

About the Author

Lisa Jean Moore, a medical sociologist, is Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at Purchase College, State University of New York. Her scholarship is located at the intersections of sociology of health and medicine, science and technology studies, feminist studies, animal studies, and critical body studies. She is the author of Sperm Counts: Overcome by Man’s Most Precious Fluid and the co-author of Gendered Bodies: Feminist Perspectives, Missing Bodies: The Politics of Visibility, and Buzz: Urban Beekeeping and the Power of the Bee. Additionally she has co-edited The Body Reader and is a founding co-editor of a successful book series at NYU Press entitled Biopolitics: Medicine, Technoscience, and Health in the 21st Century. Monica J. Casper is Professor and Head of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Arizona. A sociologist, her scholarly and teaching interests include gender, race, bodies, health, sexuality, disability, and trauma. She has published several books, including the award-winning The Making of the Unborn Patient: A Social Anatomy of Fetal Surgery. Her current research focuses on race and the biopolitics of infant mortality in the U.S. She is a founding co-editor of the NYU Press book series Biopolitics: Medicine, Technoscience, and Health in the 21st Century, as well as a managing editor of The Feminist Wire.

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