Chris Yuill

Forgetting and remembering alienation theory.

Alienation theory has acted as the stimulus for a great deal of research and writing in the history of sociology. It has formed the basis of many sociological ‘classics’ focused on the workplace and the experiences of workers, and has also been mobilized to chart wider social malaise and individual troubles. Alienation theory usage has, however, declined significantly since its heyday of the 1960s and 1970s. Here, the reasons why alienation theory was ‘forgotten’ and what can be gained by ‘remembering’ alienation theory are explored. To realize this ambition this article proceeds by (1) briefly visiting differing definitions of alienation theory, before charting its high point, and the various debates and tensions of the time, during the 1960s and 1970s; (2) analysing the reasons why alienation theory fell from grace from the 1980s onwards; (3) elaborating how and why alienation theory is still relevant for sociology and the wider social sciences today.

What Can Alienation Theory Contribute to an Understanding of Social Inequalities in Health

This article examines both the contribution and the limitations of research that has sought to develop a causal understanding of the psychosocial dimension of inequalities in health. The article seeks to revive interest in Marxs theory of alienation in developing the case for an alternative materialist conceptualization that is able to postulate the pathways from alienation as a psychosocial generative structure to social inequalities in health outcomes within late modern societies.

Key concepts in health studies

PART ONE: DEFINING HEALTH The Biomedical Model Of Health The Social Model of Health The Social and Medical Models of Disability Alternative or Complementary Medicine Quality of Life Measures Functionality PART TWO: THE HUMAN LIFE COURSE The Life Course Childbirth Childhood Family and Individual Well-being Social Dependency in Older Age The Third Age The Social Organization of Death and Dying PART THREE: HEALTH PROTECTION Social Inequalities in Health Social Capital Risk Society Public Health Health Promotion Work and Health Global Health PART FOUR: HEALTH BELIEFS AND HEALTH BEHAVIOUR Models of Health Behaviour Healthy Lifestyle and Consumption Patterns Lay Knowledge and Illness Attribution Personality and Health Embodiment Stress and Coping Motivational Interviewing in Health Care PART FIVE: THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF HEALTH AND ILLNESS Stigma and Labelling Theory Medicalization Biographical Disruption Professional-Client Communication Pain Illness Narratives Adherence PART SIX: HEALTH CARE PROVISION Health Care Systems Long-Term Health and Social Care Needs Informal Care The Role of Health Professionals Health Care Governance Institutionalization Health Care Consumerism and Patient Choice

The Body as Weapon: Bobby Sands and the Republican Hunger Strikes

The 1981 Hunger Strike marked an important point in the Northern Ireland conflict, shifting its focus away from city streets and country lanes into the H-Block prison. Here republican prisoners used their embodiment to resist and fight back at attempts to recast them as criminals as opposed to the soldiers they perceived themselves to be. Given the centrality of the body and embodiment in the prison struggle this paper will theorise the ‘body-as-weapon’ as a modality of resistance. This will begin by interrogating key themes within the sociology of the body before discussing and dismissing an alternative explanation of the Hunger Strike: the actions of the hunger strikers standing in the traditions of heroic Gaelic myths and Catholic martyrdom. Finally, drawing from the sociology of the body, I will then proceed to discuss how the body and embodiment deployed in this manner can be effective, concentrating on how the ‘body-as-weapon’: (i) acts as a resource for minority political groups; (ii) destabilises notions of the body in modernity and related to that point (iii) engages in a ‘hidden’ impulse of modernity, that of self-sacrifice.

The Credit Crunch and the High Street: Coming like a Ghost Town

Drawing on primary visual data and secondary sources this rapid response piece speculates on the changes to the British high street as a consequence of the credit crunch. The changes are much more profound than simply the loss of a place to shop. For both individuals and wider society the changes to the British high street carry implications for issues of self-identity, social contacts and social exclusion.

New Directions for Corporate Social Responsibility and Health

Health is a fundamental element of human wellbeing. As such, many Corporate Social Responsibility activities are aimed at improving health, typically externally of communities living in the locality of the extraction of energy resources, though also internally of employees. What this chapter advances is that whilst such activity is welcome and demonstrates a willingness for corporations to positively interact with either local communities or their employees, that intervention is predicated on a particular model of health that is limited in its scope and understanding of what drives good or poor health. That bio-medical model of health is contrasted with the social model of health, which prioritises the explanatory power of social processes in conditioning health. Adopting the social model of health not only provides a deeper, richer and more holistic understanding of health, but also invites different courses of action to take in regards to improving health. In terms of community health, action becomes directed not at the provision of healthcare but tackling the social causes of poor health, such as inequalities of various forms. For employee health the familiar approaches of improving health by encouraging exercise, fitness and healthy eating programmes give way to redesigning the structures of a company, so as to allow employees to gain more autonomy and control—the prime drivers of poor health in the workplace indicated in the research literature.