The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Body and Embodiment

In popular debates over the influences of nature versus culture on human lives, bodies are often assigned to the category of "nature": biological, essential, and pre-social. The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Body and Embodiment challenges that view, arguing that bodies both shape and get shaped by human societies. As such, the body is an appropriate and necessary area of study for sociologists. The Handbook works to clarify the scope of this topic and display the innovations of research within the field.

The volume is divided into three main parts: Bodies and Methodology; Marginalized Bodies; and Embodied Sociology. Sociologists contributing to the first two parts focus on the body and the ways it is given meaning, regulated, and subjected to legal and medical oversight in a variety of social contexts (particularly when the body in question violates norms for how a culture believes bodies "ought" to behave or appear). Sociologists contributing to the last part use the bodily as a lens through which to study social institutions and experiences. These social settings range from personal decisions about medical treatment to programs for teaching police recruits how to use physical force, from social movement tactics to countries' understandings of race and national identity.

The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of the Body also prioritizes empirical evidence and methodological rigor, attending to the ways particular lives are lived in particular physical bodies located within particular cultural and institutional contexts. Many chapters offer extended methodological reflections, providing guidance on how to conduct sociological research on the body and, at times, acknowledging the role the authors' own bodies play in developing their knowledge of the research subject.

Natalie Boero is a professor of Sociology at San Jose State University. Her work focuses on body size, healthcare inequalities, and qualitative methodology. Her current research focuses on illness narratives of dialysis patients with end-stage renal disease. Her work has appeared in Body and Society, Qualitative Sociology, and Fat Studies. She is the author of Killer Fat (2012).

Katherine Mason is an assistant professor of Sociology and Women's & Gender Studies at Wheaton College (Massachusetts). She researches health and body inequalities, focusing on how people's care and cultivation of their bodies serves as a vector for the reproduction of social stratification. Her work has appeared in Social Problems, Fat Studies, and Sexuality Research and Social Policy.