An opportunity for medical sociology to establish a voice in the key debates in social science today: modernity, postmodernity, structuralism and poststructuralism. Essential reading for students of the sociology of medicine, health and illness.

List of contributors, Introduction, 1 Postmodernity and health, 2 The promise of postmodernism for the sociology of health and medicine, 3 Medical sociology and modernity: reflections on the public sphere and the roles of intellectuals and social critics, 4 Issues at the interface of medical sociology and public health, 5 Explaining health inequalities: how useful are concepts of social class?, 6 Gender, health and the feminist debate on postmodernism, 7 In search of the ‘missing body’: pain, suffering and the (post) modern condition, 8 Ageing, the lifecourse and the sociology of embodiment, 9 Risk, governmentality and the reconceptualization of citizenship, 10 Medicine and complementary medicine: challenge and change, 11 Postmodern adventures of life and death, Index