Health social movements (HSMs) are an innovative and powerful form of political action aimed at transforming the health care system, modifying people's experience of illness, and addressing broader social determinants of health and disease in diverse communities. This book represents the first collection of research on HSMs. It brings together the study of health and illness with social movement theory in order to establish a basis for the study of health social movements. Contributions cover both health social movements focused on diseases such as Alzheimer's and breast cancer, and issue-based HSMs such as the pro-choice movement, the movement for complementary and alternative medicine, and movements around stem cell research. Taken together, they illustrate the value of interdisciplinary approaches to studying HSMs.

Phil Brown is Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies at Brown University. He is the author of No Safe Place Toxic Waste, Leukemia, and Community Action (1990) and co-editor of Illness and the Environment: A Reader in Contested Medicine (2000).

Stephen Zavestoski is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of San Francisco. His work has appeared in journals such as Science, Technology and Human Values, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Sociology of Health and Illness, Social Science Computer Review, and Organization and Environment.