SOCIAL SCIENCE / Disease & Health Issues

This book provides an accessible guide to the key elements of risk in policy making and shows how its use and misuse has shaped policy makers’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in a range of countries.

Drawing on 20 years of ethnographic and policy research in South Africa, Brazil and India, this book highlights the value of understanding the embodied and political dimensions of health policy and reveals the networked threads that weave women’s precarity into the governance of technologies and the technologies of governance.

Drawing on the perspectives of women and children displaced from Ukraine, as well as local authority policy makers and service providers, this book provides a unique view of the direct and indirect consequences of war in Europe and identifies the best responses to these ‘wicked issues’.

Since the 1960s a major mental health crisis has emerged among Western working populations. Through a study spanning several decades, this book uses an original framework to capture the history and developments of mental vulnerability in working life.

At a time of global ‘permacrisis’, Sebastian Taylor applies his extensive frontline experience working with health systems and healthcare in the Global North and South to assess the concrete impact of contemporary liberal values on our welfare, development and environmental survival.

This book explores the intersection of miracle cures and technology with a unique methodology. Unravelling the intricate connections between social, technological, biomedical and non-biomedical spheres, it makes a significant contribution to debates on technology and health.

This interdisciplinary activist research project shows the health and well-being impacts of transnational migration on Ecuadorean families. Roberta Villalón documents the intersection of social inequalities and migration and health policies, and how individual and collective action challenges marginalising structures and fosters social justice.

This cross-Europe analysis explores crucial aspects of long term recovery from substance use. Leading experts set out the evolving needs of people who have sought to change their use of substances and the factors in their progress. The book concludes with clear recommendations for improving future research, policy and practice.

Can the social sciences explain the emergence of mental disorders in societies or in individuals? This book presents a critical look at sociological explanations of mental illnesses, making the case for their renewal.

By elevating trans voices and experiences, this book offers a new perspective on transness, medicalization and research methodologies to help trans people, practitioners and policy makers better understand the barriers faced by trans people when seeking healthcare.

Designed to support training and CPD in compulsory mental health work, this book looks at assessment, detention, compulsion and coercion in a variety of settings. With emphasis on theory into practice, the book is essential reading for those looking to develop their reflexive and critical analytical skills.

Combining robust evidence with real-life stories, this book reveals the shocking impact of austerity policies on life expectancy and offers an optimistic vision of what can be done to restore life expectancy and reduce health inequality.