'Bryan Turner's bracing The Body & Society is now better than ever. With his characteristic sociological flair, Turner bridges the organic and cultural with his philosophical and theological aspirations: the result is a penetrating analysis of society's blend of bodies - from erotic to famished bodies, labouring to desiring bodies' - Anthony Elliott, Professor of Sociology and Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Flinders University 'Bryan Turner has revolutionized the way in which we think about ourselves and our bodies. This edition ! demonstrates further intellectual growth and development; innovative ideas inform an already classic understanding. The human body is the very material of our lives; this book allows us to deepen our knowledge of the meanings of the body in the twenty-first century and offers a definitive and emancipatory account of the possibilities (both negative and positive) with which we are presented and which we construct for ourselves.' - Mary Evans, London School of Economics This is a fully revised edition of a book that may fairly claim to have re-opened the sociology of the body as a legitimate area of enquiry. Providing an unparalleled guide to all aspects of the subject, each chapter has been revised and updated while the book contains new material that reflects both recent changes in the field and Turner's developing position on the centrality of vulnerability. Assured and innovative, this book provides the most authoritative statement of work on the sociology of the body by one of the leading writers in the field. Bryan Turner is currently Professor of Sociology at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. Praise for the second edition: 'This book provides a stimulating overview of social and sociological thinking, written in a way which helps in reassessing and critically comparing the kinds of accounts they provide of the body and bodily experience! This continues to be a valuable and thought provoking book' - Medical Sociology News 'His analysis remains compelling! the book is interesting, well-written and relevant' - Health
Bryan S. Turner is Professor of Sociology in the Asian Research Institute (ARI) at the National University of Singapore. Previously he was Professor of Sociology in the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cambridge from 1998-2005. His research interests include globalization and religion, concentrating on such issues as religious conflict and the modern state, religious authority and electronic information, religious, consumerism and youth cultures, human rights and religion, the human body, medical change, and religious cosmologies. He is Joint Chief Editor of the journal Citizenship Studies and serves on the editorial boards of several prestigious journals.
Introduction to the Third Edition Virtue and the Body: The Debate over Nature and Nurture Chapter 1: The Mode of Desire Vulnerability and Values Needs and Desires Wisdom and Friendship The Mode of Desire Asceticism Desire and Reason Homo Duplex Play and Pleasure Capitalist Bodies Chapter 2: Sociology and the Body Absent Bodies The Self Michel Foucault Spirit and Flesh Sociology of the Body Locations for a Theory Critical Theory Structuralism Foucault and the Origins of Sociology Phenomenology The Person Chapter 3: The Body and Religion Capitalism, Desire, Rationality Sickness, Salvation and Medicine Medical Ethics and the Medical Fee Medicine as a Secular Practice Capitalism and the Body Chapter 4: Bodily Order Hobbesian Materialism Neo-Hobbesian Problem of Order Reproduction Restraint Regulation Representation Chapter 5: Eve's Body Nature/Culture Argument The Property Argument Patriarchal Relations The Feudal System Individualism Witchcraft An Argument for Divorce Chapter 6: The End of Patriarchy? The Dominant Ideology Thesis Patriarchalism Weber on Patriarchy Engels on Patriarchy Feminist Theory The Household in Capitalism Patrism Chapter 7: The Disciplines Foucault, Language, Desire The Accumulation of Men Asceticism Dietary Management Table Practices The Critique of Foucault Chapter 8: Government of the Body A Mode of Living The Orgy and the Fast On Disease Man is What He Eats Sensualism Body Practices Contradictions Corsets Women's Complaints Calculating Hedonism Chapter 9: Disease and Disorder Disease versus Illness On the Specialization of Sin, Disease and Deviance Secularization Medical Morality Doctors, Women and Sexuality Culture and Disease Chapter 10: Ontology of Difference Marx's Ontology The Body in Nature and the Nature in the Body Nietzsche versus Marx The Body and Difference Body Paradoxes Chapter 11: Bodies in Motion - Towards an Aesthetic of Dance The Experience of Aura Defining Dance Dance and Modernism Conclusion: The Stuff of Dance Chapter 12: The Body and Boredom - The New Longevity The Body and Metaphysics Technology and Living Forever Body and Soul The Elixir of Life Sociology of Ageing Boredom and the Theology of Prolongevity Chapter 13: Epilogue - Vulnerability and Values Embodiment, Vulnerability and Frailty Human Rights: Frailty, Precariousness and Interconectedness The Metaphors of Sociability Evil and the Theological Turn Forgiveness or Revenge?
The Body And Society is now better than ever. ... Turner bridges the organic and cultural with his philosophical and theological aspirations: the result is a penetrating analysis of society's blend of bodies - from erotic to famished bodies, labouring to desiring bodies Anthony Elliott Flinders University Bryan Turner has revolutionized the way in which we think about ourselves and our bodies. This edition ... demonstrates further intellectual growth and development; innovative ideas inform an already classic understanding. The human body is the very material of our lives; this book allows us to deepen our knowledge of the meanings of the body in the twenty-first century and offers a definitive and emancipatory account of the possibilities (both negative and positive) with which we are presented and which we construct for ourselves Mary Evans London School of Economics
