SARAH EARLE is Lecturer in Health and Social Care at The Open University, UK. She has published in the areas of the sociology of health and health care education and the sociology of reproduction and sexuality.GAYLE LETHERBY is Professor of Sociology at the University of Plymouth, UK. Her interests are eclectic and include issues of method, methodology and epistemology, reproductive and non/parental identities, working and learning in higher education.

• DedicationAcknowledgementsThinking Sociologically about Health and HealthcarePART I: SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON HEALTH AND HEALTHCAREIntroduction; The Political Economy of Health and Health Care; Ellen AnnandaleThe Medicalisation of Reproduction; Pamela Abbott, Claire Wallace and Melissa TylerThe Social Role of Medicine; David ArmstrongThe Sociological Construction of Medicine; Paul AtkinsonThe Sociological Imagination; Charles Wright MillsPART II: MAKING SENSE OF HEALTHIntroduction; Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches; Keith F. PunchHistorical Data for Health Inequalities; Sara Mallinson, Jennie Popay, Eva Elliot, Sharon Bennett, Lisa Bostock, Anthony Gatrell, Carol Thomas and Gareth Williams Practice-based Evidence; Nick J. Fox'Traditional' and 'Emancipatory' Research; Beth HumphriesWomen Respondents in Health Research; Helen RobertsEthics and Ethics Committees; Carole TrumanPART III: INEQUALITIES AND DIVERSITY IN HEALTH Introduction; The Politics of Victim Blaming; Robert CrawfordThe Determinants of Geographical Inequalities in Health; Heather Joshi, Richard D. Wiggins, Mel Bartley, Richard Mitchell, Simon Gleave and Kevin LynchChildren Reflecting on Health; Kathryn Backett-Milburn, Sarah Cunningham-Burley and John DavisGender and Women's Health; Lesley DoyalMeasuring and Understanding Ethnic Inequalities in Health; Mel BartleyPART IV: BODIES, MINDS AND EMOTIONS Introduction; The Body, Medicine and Death; Deborah Lupton'Enhancing' the Body; Peter Conrad and Heather T. JacobsonHumour and Illness; Alison Chapple and Sue ZieblandAnorexia as Disability; Stephanie Tierney'Dirty Work'; Ian ShawEmotion Work in Midwifery; Billie HunterPART V: POWER, PROFESSIONS AND PRACTICE Introduction; The Characteristics of a Profession; Eliot FriedsonThe Professionalisation of Complementary and Alternative Medicine; Merrijoy Kelner, Beverly Wellman, Heather Boon and Sandy WelshThe Feminisation of Dentistry; Tracey L. AdamsOccupational Boundaries in the Operating Theatre; Stephen Timmons and Judith TannerChoosing to be Childfree; Annily CampbellThe Internet and the Doctor-Patient Relationship; Alex Broom.

'The editors, both eminent academics in health and social care, have put together an interesting collection of 28 classic and contemporary readings... The papers are short, but do stimulate reflection and critical thinking.' - Nursing Standard