STUDIA SOCIOLOGICA vol 1/2015

The sociology of body, health, and disease

Editor of volume: Teresa Zbyrad (email: Ten adres pocztowy jest chroniony przed spamowaniem. Aby go zobaczyć, konieczne jest włączenie obsługi JavaScript. )

The time of the preparation of the articles: 15 October 2014

The aim of the present volume is on the multispectral analysis of man's body. One should examine the sociology of the body as a separate subdiscipline of investigative sociology, which was created in 1995, when the book the Body & Society appeared. The sociology of the body shares many connections with other subdisciplines of sociology, including the sociology of medicine. The subject matter of this volume will draw from the areas of sociology of the body as well as the sociology of medicine. A basically accepted thesis in this volume comes from A. Giddensa, who states, "we are as men all body”.  It is our assertion that the body has many social and cultural meanings. Therefore, in the disciplines of sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and theology, medicine and the body are a primary area of study.

The interest in man's body was never so intense as during the present. Currently, man perceives the value of his body as connected with his lifestyle, such as in forms of nourishment. Worries about the body deal with health, appearance, and even shape. More and more people treat the body not only as a source of individual identity, but also as a kind of social capital. The presence of the body in the public sphere is a phenomenon which we can see both in advertisements, as well as the discrimination of bodies deemed unattractive, ill, handicapped, or elderly. Societal influences on our bodies are seen as a different form of social control, including the process of the civilization of the body, which has a permanent character to it. Health and disease, however, remain the primary characteristics of the body.  Disease especially generates many changes in a person’s life, as well as for his family and larger society. This necessity forces some men to search for alternative forms of medical treatment.   

 Detailed description:

- the body as biological capital,

- the possibility of transforming the body (plastic surgery, different methods of decorating the body),

- the idea of the body as goods (for example in advertisements or medicine),

- the abuse of the body (for example eating disorders),

- the body as a place of social control,

- the body as a source of pleasure or suffering,

 - the overmedication of the body (taking medications for every ailment, using diet pills, etc.)

- the development of medical institutions and their place in society

- the idea of health and disease as a social phenomenon,

- the social aspect of disease,

- the idea of disease as an aberration or as a brand (for example the mentality of the ill),

- social reactions to global diseases (AIDS, ADHD, dyslexia),

- the social determinants of health (for example sex education, places of residence),

- the social exclusion of ill people,

- institutions and the medical contests

- promoting good health as a way of life

- the health care alternatives to medicine.

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