’Great to have a new edition – this is essential reading and provides a clear, accessible yet original overview of social theory and the body.’
– Sarah Nettleton
, University of York
’Lucidly argued and accessibly written, this book avoids the pitfalls of either too much naturalism or too much social constructivism. It is a book with something for everyone, from the classics in social theory on the body to contemporary bodily phenomena like genetics, body modification, and cultural anxieties about death.’
– Kathy Davis, Utrecht University
Unrivalled in its clarity and coverage, this sparkling new edition of Chris Shilling′s classic text is a masterful account of the emergence and development of body matters in sociology and related disciplines.
A timely, well reasoned response to current concerns and controversies across the globe, it provides chapter-by-chapter coverage of the major theories, approaches and studies conducted in the field. Each chapter has been revised and updated, with new discussions of ′actor-network theory′, bodywork, pragmatism, the global resurgence of religious identities, ′new genetics′, biological citizenship, neuroscience, and figurations of the living and dead.
Packed full of critical analysis and relevant empirical studies the book engages with the major classical and contemporary theories within body studies including the: naturalistic, interactionist, constructionist, feminist, structuralist, phenomenological, and realist.
Original, logical and indispensable this is a must-have title for students and researchers engaged with the study of the body.
Innehållsförteckning
Preface to the Third Edition
Introduction
The Body in Sociology
The Naturalistic Body
The Socially Constructed Body
The Body and Social Inequalities: Embodying Sociology
The Body and Physical Capital
The Civilized Body
The Body, Self-Identity and Death: Figurations of Life and Death
Afterword: Embodiment, Identity and Theory
Absent-Present Bodies
The Body and Self-Identity
Body Theories and Corporeal Realism
Om författaren
Chris Shilling is Professor of Sociology in SSPSSR at the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK. Having completed a BA in Politics and an MA in Social and Political Thought at the University of Sussex, he was awarded his Ph D in the Sociology of Education at The Open University. Growing increasingly dissatisfied with cognitive conceptions of agency and disembodied theories of social and cultural processes, his research and writing from the late 1980s has sought to contribute to the embodiment of sociology and sociological theory and to promote the interdisciplinary field of ′body studies.′ He has lectured widely in Europe and North America, has written on embodiment in relation to a wide range of substantive issues (from religion, archaeology, sport, music and health and illness, to work, survival, technology and consumer culture) and his publicationshave been translated into a number of different languages. Chris Shilling′s major books include Changing Bodies: Habit, Crisis and Creativity (Sage, 2008), Embodying Sociology: Retrospect, Progress and Prospects (editor, Blackwells, 2007), The Body in Culture, Technology and Society (Sage, 2005) and, with Philip A. Mellor, The Sociological Ambition (Sage, 2001) and Re-forming the Body. Religion, Community and Modernity (Sage, 1997). He is currently editor of The Sociological Review Monograph Series and is continuing to research and write on embodiment as a foundational grounding for social thought and social research.