Culture/Place/Health

Wilbert M. Gesler, Robin A. Kearns

• Table of contents, List of figures, List of boxes, Acknowledgements,Chapter 1:Introduction , Introduction, Culture, Place, Health, Narrating change. Chapter 2:Culture matters to health , Introduction, What is culture?, A brief history of traditional cultural geography, The emergence of a new cultural geography, Structuralism and humanism, postmodernism, Cultures of health, Cultural geographies of health, Cultural matters!, Further reading. Chapter 3:Studying culture/placing ourselves , Introduction, Surveying the field, The place of observation, Observation through participating/participating while observing, Embodied power, knowledge and observation, Interpreting texts, Conclusion, Further reading. Chapter 4:Structure and agency , Introduction, The structural approach, Unhealthy societies, The humanist approach, Deprived people, Integrating structure and agency, Treating the mad, Conclusions, Further reading. Chapter 5:Language/metaphor/health , Introduction, Word, words, words, Metaphors and meaning, Stories of illness, Knowledge, power, resistance, Medical encounters, And what about place?, Health and the media, Medical soaps, Imaginative literature, Listening to language, Further reading. Chapter 6:Cultural difference in health and place , Introduction, A woman's place in health care, Ethnic differences in health experience, Geographies of sexual orientation, People with disabilities, Conclusion, Further reading. Chapter 7:Landscapes of healing , Introduction, Nature as healer, Selling the places that heal, Symbolic healing landscapes, Therapeutic landscapes, Landscape/place/healing, Further reading. Chapter 8:Consumption, place and health , Introduction, The character of consumerism, The changing face of consumption landscapes, Symbolism, landscape and health care, Consumerist ideology in the landscape, Finding space for non-consumers, Conclusion, Further reading. Chapter 9:Conclusion , Introduction, Theoretical diversity, Key questions, The disciplinary/interdisciplinary tension, What makes a health geographer today? Bibliography