Interpreting the Body - (Interpretive Lenses in Sociology) by Anne Marie Champagne & Asia Friedman

About the Book

Written by leading social scientists, this ambitious volume asks what individuals' "handling" of bodies reveal about inequality, social order and cultural change in societies.

Book Synopsis

Written by leading social scientists working in and across a variety of analytic traditions, this ambitious, insightful volume explores interpretation as a focal metaphor for understanding the body's influence, meaning, and matter in society. Interpreting body and embodiment in social movements, health and medicine, race, sex and gender, globalization, colonialism, education, and other contexts, the book's chapters call into question taken-for-granted ideas of where the self, the social world, and the body begin and end. Encouraging reflection and opening new perspectives on theories of the body that cut through the classic mind/body divide, this is an important contribution to the literature on the body.

Review Quotes

"This book will leave you with a new approach to the mind/body divide. With a meaningful set of contributions from a wide range of leading scholars, it fills an important gap in how we understand body and embodiment. A much-needed and impressive accomplishment." Georgiann Davis, University of New Mexico

"With particular attention to issues of race, gender, and colonialism, this fascinating collection explores how power relations inscribe themselves upon the body, and definitions of what is 'healthy' and 'sick, ' 'right' and 'wrong.' The authors highlight the body as an interpretive site of resistance whereby self and community reclaim positive empowerment. It's simply a must-read." Drew Leder, Loyola University

"This excellent collection of interpretive, theoretically rich studies of embodiment shows how productive the dissensus amongst perspectives is when it comes to sensing the body's openness to the vicissitudes of modernity." Arun Saldanha, University of Minnesota

"A diverse yet surprisingly focused collection of strong and innovative contributions to the field. A must-read for those interested in the (social) meanings and (contested) interpretations of bodies." Werner Binder, Masaryk University

About the Author

Anne Marie Champagne is a PhD candidate in sociology and Center for Cultural Sociology junior fellow at Yale University. Asia Friedman is Associate Professor of sociology at the University of Delaware.