SOCIOLOGY OF BODY

Sociology of Body

Contribution of Sociology of the Body to Understanding of Health/Illness

Introduction

Sociology refers to the methodical study of the social world of humans and society. In other words, it studies the humans in the social world. Sociology views individual as extremely momentous yet, it differs from the study focus of psychology in that, sociology declines explanations which centre at the 'individuals'. Moreover, sociology contends that the individuals act as autonomous bodies, and it challenges the supposition that social behaviours could be trimmed down to the study of an individual alone (mcgraw-hill.co.uk).

Twentieth century was the era of a plethora of body studies and theories. By then, body was a pivotal site for political, cultural, social and economic intervention for medicine, disability, old age, ethics, work and consumption. Body has become one of the main issues in the social sciences. For instance, the number of proliferation of researches, books and journals devoted to analysis from a social perspective. This early development and enlargement helped in the realization of the presence of body in social, political and moral life. Body holds a pivotal role in the social context along with the biological constructs.

Early assumption of conventional positivist sociologists has subsided regarding the human bodies belonging largely to biology, and nowadays body is an issue for linguistics and social analysis (Hancock et al, 2000). Customarily, studies and theories of sociology neglected the study of body. The tendency was to treat the individual as an ethereal decision making agent or a cultural con who reflects external structures. Sociology of the body entails the need to examine people. It considers human beings as an amalgamation of various dimensions, namely, socio-cultural, psychological and biological. Humans are a not sole product of genetics and biological perspectives; rather, human beings do not exist in a vacuum. From an angle of sociological perspective, people are interdependent creatures having embodied selves in connection to others (Maguire, 1993). They relate to and form associations with the outside social world, giving their input to the communal environment and taking up things from the social milieu.

It is due to the reflective and critical response to the social changes that the “body” came to the forefront of the modern-day social struggle and debate. During the past two decades, concept of the sociology of the body is quite popular and fashionable. It was once the realm of biological sciences, but now body and embodiment are the central points for numerous diversified sociological issues including, identity, social movements, ethics, culture of consumerism and philosophy (Hancock et al, 2000). Identity is one of the core issue related to the human body. Besides having difference regarding gender, body is subjected to numerous other differentiations on the basis of colour, race, creed and ethnicity. Social movements revolve around and support the causes and issues of such differences of body in social sectors. Consumerism and marketing are the fields which have benefited from the sociology of body, the most. Consumer and marketing researchers focus formulate and shape the sociological concepts ...