Wilbert M. Gesler - Böcker

This new book explores the rapidly expanding applications of spatial analysis, GIS and remote sensing in the health sciences, and medical geography.

Culture/Place/Health is the first exploration of cultural-geographical health research for a decade, drawing on contemporary research undertaken by geographers and other social scientists to explore the links between culture, place and health. It uses a wealth of examples from societies around the world to assert the place of culture in shaping relations between health and place. It contributes to an expanding of horizons at the intersection of the discipline of geography and the multidisciplinary domain of health concerns.

Culture/Place/Health is the first exploration of cultural-geographical health research for a decade, drawing on contemporary research undertaken by geographers and other social scientists to explore the links between culture, place and health. It uses a wealth of examples from societies around the world to assert the place of culture in shaping relations between health and place. It contributes to an expanding of horizons at the intersection of the discipline of geography and the multidisciplinary domain of health concerns.

Is there healing beyond the walls of a modern hospital? Healing Places looks at how different environments affect our physical, mental, spiritual, social, and emotional healing. It sets out four dimensions found in healing environments—natural, built, symbolic, and social—and applies these ideas to three places that achieved a lasting reputation for healing: Epidauros in Greece, Bath in England, and Lourdes in France. Gesler's engaging and innovative approach draws from a variety of fields, from geography and environmental psychology to medicine, sociology, and anthropology. Comparing these healing places to today's hospital, Gesler shows that place and healing are inextricably linked and advocates that health care should go well beyond biomedical solutions.

Putting Health into Place draws together original works that collectively argue for a reinvention of medical geography. There is a growing interest worldwide in relationships between human health and the experience of place, an interest driven both by developments in sociocultural theory and observed health concerns. Thisbook is a resource for those wishing to explore or to teach beyond the frontiers of conventional medical geography.As the first word of the book's title suggests, this is an active volume, one that contributes to situating health in the simultaneously tangible, negotiated, and experienced realities of place. Robin A. Kearns and WilbertM. Gesler argue that medical issues are a necessary but insufficient focus in developing geographies of health and healing. This contention is supported by the authors of the thirteen substantive chapters who convey research findings from the Americas, Britain, and the Pacific.This book represents a collective commitment to exploring links between social and cultural theory, ideas about place, and discourses on health that will be of interest to readers across the social and health sciences.