The Body and Society

Bryan S. Turner is Professor of Sociology in the Asian Research Institute (ARI) at the National University of Singapore. Previously he was Professor of Sociology in the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cambridge from 1998-2005. His research interests include globalization and religion, concentrating on such issues as religious conflict and the modern state, religious authority and electronic information, religious, consumerism and youth cultures, human rights and religion, the human body, medical change, and religious cosmologies. He is Joint Chief Editor of the journal Citizenship Studies and serves on the editorial boards of several prestigious journals.

The Body And Society is now better than ever. … Turner bridges the organic and cultural with his philosophical and theological aspirations: the result is a penetrating analysis of society′s blend of bodies - from erotic to famished bodies, labouring to desiring bodiesAnthony ElliottFlinders University Bryan Turner has revolutionized the way in which we think about ourselves and our bodies. This edition … demonstrates further intellectual growth and development; innovative ideas inform an already classic understanding. The human body is the very material of our lives; this book allows us to deepen our knowledge of the meanings of the body in the twenty-first century and offers a definitive and emancipatory account of the possibilities (both negative and positive) with which we are presented and which we construct for ourselvesMary EvansLondon School of Economics

• Introduction to the Third EditionVirtue and the Body: The Debate over Nature and NurtureChapter 1: The Mode of DesireVulnerability and ValuesNeeds and DesiresWisdom and FriendshipThe Mode of DesireAsceticismDesire and ReasonHomo DuplexPlay and PleasureCapitalist BodiesChapter 2: Sociology and the BodyAbsent BodiesThe SelfMichel FoucaultSpirit and FleshSociology of the BodyLocations for a TheoryCritical TheoryStructuralismFoucault and the Origins of SociologyPhenomenologyThe PersonChapter 3: The Body and ReligionCapitalism, Desire, RationalitySickness, Salvation and MedicineMedical Ethics and the Medical FeeMedicine as a Secular PracticeCapitalism and the BodyChapter 4: Bodily OrderHobbesian MaterialismNeo-Hobbesian Problem of OrderReproductionRestraintRegulationRepresentationChapter 5: Eve′s BodyNature/Culture ArgumentThe Property ArgumentPatriarchal RelationsThe Feudal SystemIndividualismWitchcraftAn Argument for DivorceChapter 6: The End of Patriarchy?The Dominant Ideology ThesisPatriarchalismWeber on PatriarchyEngels on PatriarchyFeminist TheoryThe Household in CapitalismPatrismChapter 7: The DisciplinesFoucault, Language, DesireThe Accumulation of MenAsceticismDietary ManagementTable PracticesThe Critique of FoucaultChapter 8: Government of the BodyA Mode of LivingThe Orgy and the FastOn DiseaseMan is What He EatsSensualismBody PracticesContradictionsCorsetsWomen′s ComplaintsCalculating HedonismChapter 9: Disease and DisorderDisease versus IllnessOn the Specialization of Sin, Disease and DevianceSecularizationMedical MoralityDoctors, Women and SexualityCulture and DiseaseChapter 10: Ontology of DifferenceMarx′s OntologyThe Body in Nature and the Nature in the BodyNietzsche versus MarxThe Body and DifferenceBody ParadoxesChapter 11: Bodies in Motion - Towards an Aesthetic of DanceThe Experience of AuraDefining DanceDance and ModernismConclusion: The Stuff of DanceChapter 12: The Body and Boredom - The New LongevityThe Body and MetaphysicsTechnology and Living ForeverBody and SoulThe Elixir of LifeSociology of AgeingBoredom and the Theology of ProlongevityChapter 13: Epilogue - Vulnerability and ValuesEmbodiment, Vulnerability and FrailtyHuman Rights: Frailty, Precariousness and InterconectednessThe Metaphors of SociabilityEvil and the Theological TurnForgiveness or Revenge?