Health and medicine have so far not constituted a significant area of study within the social sciences in India. Given that the experience of disease and its detection are deeply embedded in social settings, foundational questions on the meaning and understanding of health and the role of medicine need to be raised.
How do we distinguish between health and ill-health? How do we differentiate between a medical problem and a lifestyle issue? Does the medical establishment diagnose lifestyle problems as diseases and treat them through medication? What is the impact of privatization and corporatization of medicine on health? Sociology of Health and Medicine discusses these, and other, essential questions.
This work introduces medical pluralism into the social theory of health and medicine, which has hitherto worked with the idea of medicine and body in the singular. It draws insights in a comparative perspective, going beyond purely biomedicine to consider the significance of Indian, Asian, and African medicinal systems. Encompassing both theoretical writings and empirical studies, this is a timely addition to the discourse on health and medicine in our times.
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