“Overall, I feel that this book does an excellent job of providing an accessible yet sophisticated collection of studies on a hitherto understudied topic in the sociology of health and illness. I am hopeful that this volume will encourage further scholarship into the sociology of pandemics, which will itself become an established area in its own right.” (Sociology of Health & Illness, 1 July 2015)
The resurgence of infectious disease as a threat to public health in our globalized world presents social as well as biomedical challenges. This volume explores the sociological issues raised by pandemics that are as inevitable as they are unpredictable. How, for example, do we detect and identify new or resurgent diseases? How should public health authorities manage their responses? How does media coverage of pandemics affect public perceptions, and how can we generate awareness without panic? The contributors to this volume analyze case studies ranging from the scare over ‘avian flu’ that raised crucial questions of public interest, to the outbreak of H1N1 ‘swine flu’ in 2009 and the West Nile virus, spread by a mosquito whose habitat is expanding in a warming world. Respected authors also tackle overarching issues of methodology and international governance, such as the imperative to coordinate supranational strategy in combating infections able to span the world as stowaways on passenger aircraft.
Bringing together perspectives from North America, Europe and Asia, the book sets a bold sociological agenda informed by a keen awareness of the technical limitations of epidemiology, by newly forged links between public health and national security, and by geopolitical issues of development and social equity. It is a compelling intervention in an urgent policy debate.
From the Back Cover
The resurgence of infectious disease as a threat to public health in our globalized world presents social as well as biomedical challenges. This volume explores the sociological issues raised by pandemics that are as inevitable as they are unpredictable. How, for example, do we detect and identify new or resurgent diseases? How should public health authorities manage their responses? How does media coverage of pandemics affect public perceptions, and how can we generate awareness without panic? The contributors to this volume analyze case studies ranging from the scare over ‘avian flu’ that raised crucial questions of public interest, to the outbreak of H1N1 ‘swine flu’ in 2009 and the West Nile virus, spread by a mosquito whose habitat is expanding in a warming world. Respected authors also tackle overarching issues of methodology and international governance, such as the imperative to coordinate supranational strategy in combating infections able to span the world as stowaways on passenger aircraft.
Bringing together perspectives from North America, Europe and Asia, the book sets a bold sociological agenda informed by a keen awareness of the technical limitations of epidemiology, by newly forged links between public health and national security, and by geopolitical issues of development and social equity. It is a compelling intervention in an urgent policy debate.
About the Author
Robert Dingwall is a consulting sociologist and part-time Professor of Sociology at Nottingham Trent University, UK. He is a widely published author and editor in the fields of medical sociology, law and society, and science and technology. A former UK government adviser on ethical aspects of national pandemic planning, and consultant to Roche Pharmaceuticals, he co-edited the Handbook of Qualitative Health Research (2010) and was editor of the four-volume Qualitative Health Research (2008).
Lily M. Hoffman is Associate Professor of Sociology at City College and The Graduate Center of The City University of New York, USA, where she directs the MA program in Sociology. A specialist on urban governance issues, she is a former chairperson of the Urban and Community section of the American Sociological Association. Prof Hoffman co-edited Cities and Visitors: Regulating People, Markets and City Space (2003), and is the author of The Politics of Knowledge: Activist Movements in Medicine and Planning (1989).
Karen Staniland is a Senior Lecturer in Nursing at the University of Salford, UK, and holds a PhD in sociology. Her research focuses on sociological and ethnographic studies of healthcare work, applied to improving the quality of care. In addition to co-editing The Nurse Mentor and Reviewer Update Book (2010) and Clinical Skills: The Essence of Caring (2009), she has written open-learning materials on pandemic influenza for healthcare professionals.
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