The area of the sociology of medicine has developed its own internal debates. Over the years there has been a shift from a sociology in medicine to a sociology of medicine and then towards a sociology of health and illness. This book discusses the latter perspective.

Chapter 1 Introduction: Developing the Sociology of Health Chapter 2 Socio-economic Conditions and Aspects of Health: Respiratory Symptoms in Four West Yorkshire Mining Localities Chapter 3 Opening the ‘Black Box’: Inequalities in Women’s Health Chapter 4 Distance Decay and Information Deprivation: Health Implications for People in Rural Isolation Chapter 5 ‘We’re Home Helps because we Care’: The Experience of Home Helps Caring for Elderly People Chapter 6 Hooked? Media Responses to Tranquillizer Dependence Chapter 7 Regulating our Favourite Drug Chapter 8 Say No to Drugs, but Yes to Clean Syringes? Chapter 9 Using Alternative Therapies: Marginal Medicine and Central Concerns Chapter 10 Caribbean Home Remedies and their Importance for Black Women’s Health Care in Britain Chapter 11 Health and Work in the 1990s: Towards a New Perspective Chapter 12 Where was Sociology in the Struggle to Re-establish Public Health?