Sociology of Health and Medicine

Health and medicine rarely constitute object of enquiry in the social science literature in India. Given the fact that experience of disease and its detection are deeply embedded in social settings, foundational questions on the meaning and experience of health and on the role of medicine have to be raised. Drawing upon published social science research in the field, this book discusses many of these questions. It also brings medical pluralism into the heart of social theory of health and medicine, that has hitherto been labouring under the assumption of medicine in the singular, namely, western bio medicine.