Real Bodies

DR SARA AHMED Senior Lecturer in Women's Studies, Lancaster University and currently Co-Director of the Institute for Women's Studies DR HAZEL BIGGS Lecturer in Law at the University of Kent, Canterbury DR JO BRIDGEMAN Lecturer at University of Sussex DR JO ENTWISTLE Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Essex EMILY JACKSON Lecturer, Law Department, London School of Economics DAVID MORGAN Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University of Kent PROFESSOR JANET SAYERS teaches at the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent DR SALLY SHELDON teaches law at Keele University DR KYLIE STEPHEN Women and Equality Unit, UK Government Cabinet Office DR CAROL THOMAS Senior Lecturer in Applied Social Science, Lancaster University

With a focus on the changeability of the body, it examines the part that bodies play in the social construction of categories such as race, sexuality and disability and explores how we express ourselves through our bodies, whether in eating, dress or pain.This introductory text sets out to make the links between sociological theories of the body and actual human behaviour and experience. It covers a broad range of topics, from long-standing sociological concerns to more contemporary issues. With a focus on the changeability of the body, it examines the part that bodies play in the social construction of categories such as race, sexuality and disability and explores how we express ourselves through our bodies, whether in eating, dress or pain. It also debates how the body is regulated, both through the life course and in reproduction.