Health, Illness and Medicine brings together a collection of writings in the sociology of medicine by eminent sociologists and anthropologists. It attempts to understand the existing and future potential of this sub-discipline in the Indian context and beyond. In doing so, the contributors engage with a range of debates on illness, health care and health policies. Commemorating Aneeta Minocha’s unparalleled contribution to medical sociology in India, this study revolves around two major concerns: the position of medical sociology in sociology, and the interface of sociology with medicine and public health. Reflecting on the current debates in the field of sociology of health and illness, this volume explores a wide range of issues—medical pluralism, public health discourses on risk and prevention, family planning practices, efforts at combating tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, organ transplantation, the relationship between illness and cultural practices, and illness narratives. The book is unique in that it brings together research studies that are theoretically informed and ethnographically grounded.
Foreword Preface Acknowledgements Abbreviations
Introduction Arima Mishra 1. Medical Pluralism in India: The Interface of Complementary and Alternative Therapies with Allopathy Ruby Bhardwaj 2. Intervertebral Disc Prolapse: A Personal Encounter with Biomedicine Suhita Chopra Chatterjee 3. Deconstructing ‘Self-care’ in Biomedical and Public Health Discourses Arima Mishra 4. Secondary Gains from Cross-Cultural Health Encounters: Stories from a Somali Clinic in the United States Ritika Ganguly 5. The Fit between Traditional Fertility and Sterilisation: A Study of Negotiations in Rural India Tulsi Patel 6. Situating Declining Sex Ratio: Evidence from North India Reema Bhatia 7. Lay Perceptions of Tuberculosis: A Study in Delhi Shilpa Khatri 8. Narrator and Narrative: Understanding Scientific Realism of Chronic Diseases in the Field Avanish Kumar and Meerambika Mahapatro 9. Community-Based Organisations in Policy and Practice: Sex Workers, HIV/ AIDS and the Social Construction of Solutions Flora Cornish, Riddhi Banerji and Anuprita Shukla 10. A Paradigm for Well-Being: The Social Construction of Health in Rural Sri Lanka Chandani Liyange 11. The Role of Family in Organ Transplantation Shikha Batra
Glossary Select Publications of Aneeta A. Minocha Contributions Index