NICK WATSON is Lecturer in Medical Sociology at the Department of Nursing Studies, University of Edinburgh. His current research interests are mainly in the field of disability studies and he has just finished work on an ESRC funded research project Life as a Disabled Child. - SARAH CUNNINGHAM-BURLEY is Senior Lecturer in Medical Sociology at the Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Edinburgh. She has published widely in journals and is co-editor (with Neil McKeganey) of Readings in Medical Sociology and Enter the Sociologist.

• List of Figures and Photographs Preface and Acknowledgements Notes on the Contributors Introduction; N.Watson & S.Cunningham-Burley PART I: THEORETICAL REFRAMINGS OF THE BODY Bodies, Intellectuals and World Society; R.W.Connell Strong Words, Strong Minds, Strong Bodies: An Analysis of the Narrative Structure of Affirmatory Metaphors in Personal Development Programs; R.Iphofen The Body and Society: Some Reflections on the Concepts of Impairment and Disability; C.Thomas The Body in Death; E.Hallam, J.Hockey & G.Howarth PART II: INSTITUTIONS AND FASHION AT WORK ON THE BODY Incorporating Clinical Authority: A New Test for People with HIV; K.Race Vampires and the Gendered Body; M.Williamson Constructing the Balletic Body: The 'Look', The Sylph, and the Performance of Gendered Identity; K.L.Carter PART III: BODIES AT THE GYM The Bodybuilding Ethnophysiology Thesis; L.Monaghan Be What You Wanna Be: A Sense of Identity Down at the Local Gym; L.Fishwick Muscling In: Gender and Physicality in Weight Training Culture; J.Ryan PART IV: BODIES ON THE NET Crossing Cyber Boundaries: Where is the Body Located in the Online Community?; K.Ward Disembodied Cyber Co-Presence: The Art of BeingThere While Somewhere Else; G.Coates Life Around the Screen: Re-Framing Young People's Use of the Internet; N.Bingham, G.Valentine & S.Holloway Index