Summary
Contents
This book provides a clear, focused road map to the study of the body in society. It defines, explains and applies core topics relating to the human body demonstrating how we approach it as a social phenomenon.
Each concept: Includes an easy to understand definition; Provides real-world examples; Gives suggestions for further reading; Is carefully cross-referenced to other related concepts
Written to meet the needs of the modern student this book offers the basic materials, tools and guidance needed study and write about the body.
Power
Power
Definition Everyone knows what power is in the general sense – the possession or exertion of an ability to direct or control, whether the object of that control is an individual, political regimes, social systems, or abstract concepts. In terms of the human body in society, power can be exerted upon the bodies of individuals for any of these reasons (and more) and it can also be exerted through knowledge systems (Discourse) to frame, define, manoeuvre and control the body as a material entity and to shape the way we understand embodiment as an abstract concept.
There are many ways of speaking about power in sociology. However, in relation to the human body in society it is, again, Foucault who has been one of the ...
