Contesting Illness
Process and Practices
Published on 16. February 2008
Book
Paperback/Softback
368 pages
978-0-8020-9512-1 (ISBN)
Description
The relationship between power and illness is the subject of limited discussion despite it being one of the most important issues in health-related policies and services. In an effort to correct this, Contesting Illness engages critically with processes through which the meanings and effects of illness shape and are shaped by specific sets of practices. Featuring original contributions by researchers working in a number of disciplines, this collection examines intersections of power, contestation, and illness with the aid of various critical theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches.
The contributors explore experiences of illness, diagnosis, and treatment, and analyse wider discursive and policy contexts within which people become ill and engage with health care systems. Though each essay is unique in its approach, they are linked together by a shared focus on contestation as a conceptual tool in considering the relationship between power and illness. Rather than focus on a single example, the contributors address different contested illnesses (chronic fatigue syndrome and environmental illness, for instance) as well as the contested dimensions of illnesses that are accepted as legitimate such as cancer and autism. Contesting Illness offers valuable insights into the assumptions, practices, and interactions that shape illness in the twenty-first century.
Contributors
Jan Angus
Pia H. Buelow
Peter Conrad
Joyce Davidson
Helen Gremillion
Maren Klawiter
Joshua Kelley
Steve Kroll-Smith
Katherine Lippel
Pamela Moss
Michael Orsini
Michael J. Prince
Annie Potts
Mary Ellen Purkis
Sharon Dale Stone
Cheryl Stults
Katherine Teghtsoonian
Jane M. Ussher
Catherine van Mossel
The contributors explore experiences of illness, diagnosis, and treatment, and analyse wider discursive and policy contexts within which people become ill and engage with health care systems. Though each essay is unique in its approach, they are linked together by a shared focus on contestation as a conceptual tool in considering the relationship between power and illness. Rather than focus on a single example, the contributors address different contested illnesses (chronic fatigue syndrome and environmental illness, for instance) as well as the contested dimensions of illnesses that are accepted as legitimate such as cancer and autism. Contesting Illness offers valuable insights into the assumptions, practices, and interactions that shape illness in the twenty-first century.
Contributors
Jan Angus
Pia H. Buelow
Peter Conrad
Joyce Davidson
Helen Gremillion
Maren Klawiter
Joshua Kelley
Steve Kroll-Smith
Katherine Lippel
Pamela Moss
Michael Orsini
Michael J. Prince
Annie Potts
Mary Ellen Purkis
Sharon Dale Stone
Cheryl Stults
Katherine Teghtsoonian
Jane M. Ussher
Catherine van Mossel
Reviews / Votes
'This eclectic collection of seventeen provocative and challenging essays adds to the burgeoning literature concerning the ways in which power relations constitute people's experiences and interpretations of illness or disability in industrialized Western societies... The volume is refreshing and innovative in its multidisciplinary approach.' - Susan Philpin (Sociology of Health & Illness, vol 31:04:2009)More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Toronto
Canada
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
535 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8020-9512-1 (9780802095121)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Pamela Moss is a professor in the Studies in Policy and Practice program at the University of Victoria.
Katherine Teghtsoonian is an associate professor in the Studies in Policy and Practice program at the University of Victoria.
Katherine Teghtsoonian is an associate professor in the Studies in Policy and Practice program at the University of Victoria.
Content
AcknowledgmentsContributorsPower and Illness: Authority, Bodies, and Context PAMELA MOSS and KATHERINE TEGHTSOONIANClaiming a Disability Benefit as Contesting Social Citizenship MICHAEL J. PRINCEWorkers' Compensation and Controversial IllnessesKATHERINE LIPPELManaging Workplace Depression: Contesting the Contours of Emerging Policy in the Workplace KATHERINE TEGHTSOONIANContesting Coronary Candidacy: Reframing Risk Modification in Coronary Heart Disease JAN ANGUSHepatitis C and the Dawn of Biological Citizenship: Unravelling the Policy Implications MICHAEL ORSINITracing Contours of Contestation in Narratives about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome PIA H. BULOWCancer as a Contested Illness: Seeking Help amid Treatment MARY ELLEN PURKIS and CATHERINE VAN MOSSELEdging Embodiment and Embodying Categories: Reading Bodies Marked with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis as a Contested Illness PAMELA MOSS Managing the Monstrous Feminine: The Role of Premenstrual Syndrome in the Subjectification of Women JANE M. USSHERResisting an Illness Label: Disability, Impairment, and Illness SHARON DALE STONEThe Race and Class Politics of Anorexia Nervosa: Unravelling White, Middle-Class Standards in Representations of Eating Problems HELEN GREMILLION'More Labels Than a Jam Jar': The Gendered Dynamics of Diagnosis for Girls and Women with Autism JOYCE DAVIDSONThe Female Sexual Dysfunction Debate: Different 'Problems,' New Drugs -- More Pressures? ANNIE POTTSMoving from Settled to Contested: Transformations in the Anatomo-Politics of Breast Cancer, 1970--1990 MAREN KLAWITEREnvironments, Bodies, and the Cultural Imaginary: Imagining Ecological Impairment STEVE KROLL-SMITH and JOSHUA KELLEYContestation and Medicalization PETER CONRAD and CHERYL STULTSIndex