Bryan Turner is the key figure in the sociological debate about the body. In this stimulating book he shows how his thinking on the subject has developed and why sociologists must take the body seriously.

Introduction; Part 1 Discovering bodies; Chapter 1 The body question; Chapter 2 The absent body in structuration theory; Chapter 3 Reflections on the epistemology of the hand; Part 2 Medical sociology; Chapter 4 The interdisciplinary curriculum; Chapter 5 The body and medical sociology; Part 3 Regimes of regulation; Chapter 6 The government of the body; Chapter 7 The anatomy lesson; Chapter 8 The talking disease; Conclusion;

Bryan Turner is Professor of Sociology at Essex University.