We have two lives. The second begins when we realise we only have one.For Julius Tiberius Banks, a health crisis at thirty-two ends his first. In his second, he wants a better reason forbeing than the mountain of cash and the calculating trophy wife he'd gathered in the first.Progress is made, but less than two years later, his fleeting vision of that new life is stymied. Unknown people want him dead.Seeking safety and solutions, he returns home to Melbourne...

What happened in the basement?When Cassie Walsh returns to her small Minnesota hometown for her mother's funeral, she intends to leave as quickly as possible. But a shocking discovery in the basement freezer of her childhood home changes everything.The discovery of the body of Cassie's long-lost teenage crush in her mother's chest freezer shatters her world and forces her to confront a buried secret from fifteen years ago.Haunted by a past she tried...

Recent rapid advances in the biosciences have led to considerable debate about the social, ethical, and legal implications of research and its applications. The mapping of the human genome, advances in cloning techniques, the harvesting of embryonic stem cells for research, increasing use of genetic testing in healthcare, and the development of large-scale genetic databases have not only generated high expectations about new diagnostics and treatments but also considerable widespread fear ...

From SARS to Zika, and Ebola to COVID-19, epidemics and pandemics have become increasingly prevalent in recent years. Each outbreak presents new challenges but the responses are often similar.This important book explores the dimensions, dynamics and implications of emerging pandemic societies. Drawing on ideas from sociology and science and technology studies, it sheds new light on how pandemics are socially produced and, in turn, shape societies in areas such as governance, work a...

This book provides a unique and innovative perspective on the controversial phenomenon of ‘stem cell tourism’. A growing number of patients are embarking on stem cell treatments that are clinically unproven and yet available in clinics and hospitals around the world. The authors offer a cutting-edge multi-dimensional perspective on this complex and rapidly changing phenomenon, including an analysis of the experiences of those who have undertaken or have contemplated undertaking a stem cell...

Digital media have become deeply immersed in our lives, heightening both hopes and fears of their affordances. While the internet, mobile phones, and social media offer their users many options, they also engender concerns about their manipulations and intrusions. Emotions Online explores the visions that shape responses to media and the emotional regimes that govern people’s engagements with them.This book critically examines evidence on the role of digital media in emoti...

What is ‘digital health’? And, what are its implications for medicine and healthcare, and for individual citizens and society? ‘Digital health’ is of growing interest to policymakers, clinicians, and businesses. It is underpinned by promise and optimism, with predictions that digital technologies and related innovations will soon ‘transform’ medicine and healthcare, and enable individuals to better manage their own health and risk and to receive a more ‘personalised’ treatment and...

The rapid advancement of genetic science, fuelled by the Human Genome Project and other related initiatives, promises a new kind of public health practice based on the pre-detection of disease according to calculations of genetic risk. This book by two well-known sociologists:* explores the implications of the new genetics for public health as a body of knowledge and a domain of practice* assesses the impact of new genetic information and technologies on conceptions of health...

In recent years, a number of large population-based biobanks – genetic databases that combine genetic information derived from blood samples with personal data about environment, medical history, lifestyle or genealogy – have been set up in order to study the interface between disease, and genetic and environmental factors. Unsurprisingly, these studies have sparked a good deal of controversy and the ethical and social implications have been widely debated.Biobanks: Governance ...

The concept of risk is one of the most suggestive terms for evoking the cultural character of our times and for defining the purpose of social research. Risk attitudes and behaviours are understood to comprise the dominant experience of culture, politics and society in our times.Health, Risk and Vulnerability investigates the personal and political dimensions of health risk that structure everyday thought and action. In this innovative book, international contributors refl...

Aging Men, Masculinities and Modern Medicine explores the multiple socio-historical contexts surrounding men’s aging bodies in modern medicine from a global perspective. The first of its kind, it investigates the interrelated aspects of aging, masculinities and biomedicine, allowing for a timely reconsideration of the conceptualisation of aging men within the recent explosion of social science studies on men’s health and biotechnologies including anti-aging perspectives.Th...

Sociology is a key topic for all trainee health professionals, but many struggle to see what sociology has to offer. Based on years of experience teaching sociology to healthcare students, Lani Russell has written a truly introductory text which explains the main sociological concepts without jargon or becoming too advanced. Using carefully chosen examples, she shows how health issues are influenced by social phenomena such as class, race or sexuality and the relevance this has for practit...