This multidisciplinary reference book brings together cutting-edge health and illness topics from around the globe. It offers a range of theoretical and critical perspectives to provide contemporary insights into complex health issues that can offer ways to address inequitable patterns of illness and ill-health.

Kerry Chamberlain is Emeritus Professor of Social and Health Psychology at Massey University and Senior Research Fellow at Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He is editor-in-chief of the journal Methods in Psychology and co-editor (with Antonia Lyons) of the book series Critical Approaches to Health.

Antonia Lyons is Professor of Health Psychology and Head of School of the School of Health, Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. She is co-editor for Qualitative Research in Psychology, Associate Editor for Psychology and Health, and co-editor (with Kerry Chamberlain) of the book series Critical Approaches to Health.

Editors Contributors Acknowledgements 1. Critical perspectives on health and illness Part I. Medical Contexts 2. The social and cultural histories of medicine 3. Medicalisation 4. Pharmaceuticalisation: Origins, drivers and new directions 5. Governing medical technology 6. Health services and care: Political and affective economies 7. Diagnosis: A social and political phenomenon 8. Population-based screening for detection and prevention 9. Personalised medicine 10. Complementary and alternative medicine Part II. Life Contexts 11: Health inequality 12. Beyond binary categories: A contemporary gender studies perspective on health and illness 13. Sexual orientation and gender identity as determinants of health and illness 14. Reproductive justice: Revitalising critical reproductive health research 15. Ethnicity and health 16. Indigeneity and wellness: Critically understanding the health of Indigenous peoples and communities 17. Disability, technology and health 18. Health and illness among older people: What has age got to do with it? 19. Death, dying and end-of-life care Part III. Shifting Contextual Domains 20. Bioethics: Critical reflections and future directions 21. Digital health 22. Migration and health 23. Medical travel: Critical perspectives 24: Place in health, illness and health care 25. Commercialization: The role of unhealthy commodity industries 26. Towards a critical social science of climate change and health 27. Globalisation and health Index