Sociology of Health and Illness

Configuring maternal, preborn and infant embodiment

by Deborah Lupton

An increasing literature on the biopolitics of contemporary maternity and on risk society, individualisation and... more An increasing literature on the biopolitics of contemporary maternity and on risk society, individualisation and parenting has demonstrated the increasing emphasis that has been placed upon pregnant women and mothers to take responsibility for the health and welfare of their children. The ideal female ‘reproductive citizen’ is expected to place her children’s health and wellbeing above her own needs and desires. Here the subject positions of the ‘good mother’ and the ‘responsible citizen’ as they are produced through the discourses and practices of neoliberalism intertwine. This paper looks at the convergence of various influential discourses, images, practices and technologies in configuring maternal, preborn and infant bodies in certain ways in the context of neoliberalism. These include such factors as the growing importance of the concept of risk in relation to preborn and infant wellbeing, the extension of infant identity back into preborn bodies, the emergence of the concepts of the foetal and embryonic (and even the preconceived embryonic) citizen, the precious child and intensive parenting and the symbolic concepts of permeability, purity and danger and Self and Other as they relate to maternal, infant and preborn embodiment.

'I'm always on the lookout for what could be going wrong': mothers' concepts and experiences of health and illness in their young children

by Deborah Lupton

Sydney Health & Society Group Working Paper No. 1

Mothers in contemporary western societies are expected to adhere to the principles of intensive parenting, spending a... more Mothers in contemporary western societies are expected to adhere to the principles of intensive parenting, spending a great deal of time and effort caring for their children, protecting them from risks and promoting their health, development and wellbeing. This paper draws upon research involving indepth interviews with 60 mothers of infants and young children living in Sydney. The discussion focuses in detail on three major topics discussed in the interviews: how the interviewees conceptualised good health and illness in their children; the role of diet and physical exercise in promoting children’s good health; and space, physical safety and bad influences. The study found that the interviewees reported that they ‘read the signs’ of their children’s bodies and had to ‘know’ their bodies intimately in order to do so. They also interpreted the signals of their own bodies – their ‘gut instincts’ – as part of the process of maintaining careful surveillance of their children’s health state. They represented diet and physical exercise as the most important dimensions of promoting their children’s health, and were very concerned about the risk of obesity in their children. Notions of space and judgements about the bodies within these spaces were also important to some of the women’s concepts of protecting their children’s health and wellbeing.

Discourse analysis: a new methodology for understanding the ideologies of health and illness

by Deborah Lupton

Discourse analysis is not so much a 'new' methodology any more, as this paper was originally published 20 years ago. I have regular requests for copies, however, so have scanned it and uploaded it here.

New Organs Within Us Sanal Aslihan . New Organs within Us: Transplants and the Moral Economy . Experimental Futures Series . Durham, NC : Duke University Press , 2011 . 264 pp. ISBN: 978-0-8223-4889-4 ; US$84.95 (cloth) . ISBN: 978-0-8223-4912-9 ; US$23.95 (paper) .

by Ilke Turkmendag

Experimental Futures Series . Durham, NC : Duke University Press , 2011 . 264 pp. ISBN: 978-0-8223-4889-4 ; US$84.95 (cloth) . ISBN: 978-0-8223-4912-9 ; US$23.95 (paper) .

«Altérités aliénées: Quand la subjectivation des rapports racialisés de classe et de genre fait mal».

by Kàtia Lurbe i Puerto

Lurbe Puerto, Kàtia. Sociologie et Santé, juin 2008, num. 29, pp.335-351.

Cet article aborde la question des altérités aliénées à partir d’une étude cas construite à partir les "fragments... more Cet article aborde la question des altérités aliénées à partir d’une étude cas construite à partir les "fragments de vie" de Fatou, jeune femme française d’origine africaine prise en charge dans un centre d’ethnopsichothérapie à Paris. L’analyse critique du discours de la vie de Fatou mise en récit livre des éclairages sur une idée plurielle du concept de mobilité(s), compris comme la traversée permanente de diverses frontières, dans laquelle la subjectivation des rapports racialisés de genre et de classe relève d’une importance clef pour comprendre la souffrance
psychique de Fatou. L’article offre également des réflexions d’ordre théorico-méthodologique sur la génération des données dans les terrains sensibles, à travers de la méthode sociobiografique. Il conclut avec une invitation à mettre en oeuvre une sociologie crisique, critique et créative pour approcher la question des altérités/identités.

Mots clefs: altérités, subjectivation, soins à la santé mentale, rapports racialisés de genre et de classe, descendants de migrants, ethnopsycothérapie, la méthode socio-biographique dans les terrains sensibles.

Abstract
By focusing in a sociological case study, the paper explores the issue of the alienated otherness. The case study has been built up from life fragments of Fatou, young French women with African origins who receives mental healthcare in a centre of ethnotherapy in Paris. The critical discourse analysis of the life narrative of Fatou sheds light on a plural idea of the concept of
mobilities, which is understood as the everlasting crossing of frontiers, in which the subjectivation of racialised relations of gender and class is fundamental to clarify Fatou’s psychological suffering. In addition, the paper offers a theoretical and methodological discussion about the production of data in sensitive fieldworks when using socio-biographical methods. It concludes with an invitation for a crisic, critical and creative sociology to approach the issue of otherness/identities.

Key words: otherness, subjectivation, mental healthcare, racialised relations of gender and class, migrant’s children, ethnopsychotherapy, socio-biographicalmethod in sensitive fieldworks.

'The best thing for the baby': mothers' concepts and experiences related to promoting their infants' health and development

by Deborah Lupton

M-health and health promotion: the digital cyborg and surveillance society

by Deborah Lupton

This is a preprint of an article that has been submitted for publication. It may be cited.

The establishment of mass mammographic screening programs: in whose interests?

by Deborah Lupton

• Lupton, D. and Chapman, S. (1995) ‘A healthy lifestyle might be the death of you’: discourses on diet, cholesterol control and heart disease in the press and among the lay public. Sociology of Health & Illness, 17(4), 477--94.

by Deborah Lupton

Foucault and the medicalization critique.

by Deborah Lupton

In Petersen, A. and Bunton, R. (1997) (eds), Foucault, Health and Medicine. London: Routledge, pp. 94--110.

‘You feel so responsible’: Australian mothers’ concepts and experiences related to promoting the health and development of their young children.

by Deborah Lupton

In Zoller, H. and Dutta, M. (2008) (eds), Emerging Perspectives in Health Communication: Meaning, Culture, and Power. New York: Routledge, pp. 113—128.

Risk and the ontology of pregnant embodiment.

by Deborah Lupton

In Lupton, D. (ed), Risk and Sociocultural Theory: New Directions and Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 59--85.

Children and young people in hospitals

by Scott Yates

Published in Rix, J., Nind, M., Sheehy, K.Simmons K. (eds.) (2010) Equality, Participation and Inclusion: Diverse contexts. Open University Press
Co-authored with Malcolm Payne and Simon Dyson

Children and young people in hospitals: doing youth work in medical settings

by Scott Yates

Published in Journal of Youth Studies
Co-authored with Malcolm Payne and Simon Dyson

Young people in hospitals face a range of challenging issues. Many have chronic conditions and experience... more Young people in hospitals face a range of challenging issues. Many have chronic conditions and experience stigmatisation, anxiety and family conflict. They may also experience social isolation in hospitals, separation from local peer groups and sources of support, and separation from trusted carers during transition to adult care. These issues can require careful handling. However, there is evidence that clinical staff often do not communicate effectively with young patients, that relationships can become contested, especially around ‘adherence’ to treatment regimens, and that important underlying difficulties that young people face are not addressed, leading to resistance and disengagement from care. This paper explores this range of challenges, and presents some research evidence to argue that youth work is particularly well placed to engage with such issues. Although youth work in UK hospitals is currently very rare and under-researched, we contend that what evidence is available suggests that it can be effective in addressing the challenges of young people’s experience, and may have important health and wider-ranging general benefits for young people, health staff and hospitals.

Harm reduction and the medicalisation of tobacco use

by Catriona Rooke

Sociology of Health and Illness. Forthcoming.

In tobacco control the focus has, for some time, been on abstinence from all types of tobacco use as the only solution... more In tobacco control the focus has, for some time, been on abstinence from all types of tobacco use as the only solution to the problem of smoking, and harm reduction approaches are controversial. The most recent English tobacco strategy has incorporated harm reduction approaches in the form of new ‘routes’ to quitting smoking that encourage those who cannot quit to use safer sources of nicotine. This move away from a focus on abstinence can be seen as the result of gradual shifts over the past fifty years in the way that that the problem of smoking is understood and the solutions that are offered. These shifts have involved increasingly seeing tobacco use as a medical problem. This paper uses conceptual tools from science and technology studies to examine developments over the last decade in England, primarily the increasing importance of the idea of harm reduction. Drawing on twenty semi-structured qualitative interviews with key stakeholders and documentary analysis, I suggest that the shape harm reduction has taken in English tobacco control policy has been another shift towards the medicalisation of tobacco use, but that this process has occurred in ways that provide a contrast to commonly outlined ‘drivers’ of medicalisation.

Psychoanalytic sociology and the medical encounter: Parsons and beyond

by Deborah Lupton

Cyberchondriasis: Fact or fiction? A preliminary examination of the relationship between health anxiety and searching for health information on the Internet

by Ben Meghreblian

Muse K, McManus F, Leung C, Meghreblian B, Williams JM - Journal of Anxiety Disorders

This study examined the relationship between health anxiety and searching for health information online, a phenomenon... more This study examined the relationship between health anxiety and searching for health information online, a phenomenon dubbed 'cyberchondria'. The majority of those with 'high' (n=46) and 'low' (n=36) levels of health anxiety reported seeking health information online. However, those with higher levels of health anxiety sought online health information more frequently, spent longer searching, and found searching more distressing and anxiety provoking. Furthermore, more responses in the high than low health anxiety group related to searching for information on diagnosed and undiagnosed medical conditions, descriptions of others' experiences of illnesses and using message boards/support groups, although the largest proportion of responses in both groups was accounted for by seeking information on symptoms. Linear regression (n=167) revealed significant relationships between health anxiety and the frequency, duration and distress and anxiety associated with searching for health information online. This preliminary data suggests that searching for health information online may exacerbate health anxiety.

Society, Culture and Health

by Karen Willis

Co-authored with Dr Shandell Elmer

Society, Culture and Health introduces sociology to students studying nursing and related health professions. It... more Society, Culture and Health introduces sociology to students studying nursing and related health professions. It examines the sources of ideas about health and illness, including the biomedical model, folk and lay approaches and the influence of the media, and covers the impact on health of social marginalisation through a careful examination of structural variables. The experiences of health and illness are explained through a theoretical analysis of the body in contemporary society, covering issues such as chronic illness and disability.

Thoroughly revised and updated this edition gives an overview of the role of nursing within the health care system and its relationship with medicine and alternative health practices. Taking a practical approach, and using case studies to examine a range of issues such as domestic violence, occupational health, indigenous health and refugee health, it prepares students for working in health professions which are wide-ranging in settings, systems and clients.

George Clooney is the exception – the rest of us need Botox

by Peta Cook

published online at The Conversation

Nettleton, S. and Burrows, R. ‘E-scaped Medicine? Information, Reflexivity and Health’ Critical Social Policy, 23, 2, 165-185, 2003

by Roger Burrows