Originally published in 1984, "The Body and Society" flew against prevailing trends which asked sociologists to understand society in terms of abstractions such as structure, class and function. Instead, in a series of dazzling chapters, Bryan S Turner argued that the body should be the axis of sociological analysis. The Second Edition of this ground-breaking book includes a new introduction which analyzes the social changes which have given a special prominence to the body in contemporary social theory, and develops Turner's own notion of a 'somatic society', a society within which major political and personal problems are both problematized in the body and expressed through it. Complementing the introduction is a preface whose stress is lyrical and pictorial. Turner reflects on the cover images used in recent work on the body, recognizing that it is often through the history of art that we can dimly grasp the body metaphors which lie, no longer to hand, but at the foundation of thinking and feeling.
- ISBN10 1848609108
- ISBN13 9781848609105
- Publish Date 16 July 1996 (first published 2 July 1996)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 16 December 2010
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Sage Publications Ltd
- Edition 2nd Revised edition
- Format eBook
- Pages 272
- Language English