The Body: Social Process and Cultural Theory

by Mike Featherstone (Editor ), Mike Hepworth (Editor ), Bryan S. Turner (Editor )

This challenging volume reasserts the centrality of the body within social theory as a means to understanding the complex interrelations between nature, culture and society. At a theoretical level, the volume explores the origins of a social theory of the body in sources ranging from the work of Nietzsche to contemporary feminist theory. The importance of a theoretical understanding of the body to social and cultural analysis of contemporary societies is demonstrated through specific case studies. These range from the expression of the emotions, romantic love, dietary practice, consumer culture, fitness and beauty, to media images of women and sexuality. This wide-ranging book draws in part on papers published in Theory,

Genres: Sociology, Theory, Nonfiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Oom Shaman · Rating 5 out of 5]

From its very first issue Theory, Culture &b Society has been concerned to foster interest in the Sociology of the Body as one of the crucial instances of the complex interrelations of nature, culture and society. It is also important to stress that these chapters provide an excellent illustration of theoretical perspectives. Here we can refer to the various influences of Foucault, Nietzsche, Elias, Douglas, Horkheimer and Adorno, Mauss, Bourdieu, Baudrillard, Goffman and feminist theorist. These theoretical perspectives are selectively drawn upon to illuminate representations of the body in a wide rangs of contexts which include : the expression of the emotion, romantic love, dietary practice, consumer- culture images of youth , fitness and beauty, martial arts, social welfare, modernism, postmodernism and old ege, media images of woman and sexuality. We would not claim that this list is exhaustive; only that it provides some important representations of the contemporary sociological interest in the human body.