The author, Bryan Turner, examines how macroprocesses like globalization, risk, economic deregulation, andtechnological change shape personal experiences of health and illness.Addressing key topics in contemporary sociology such as the body,power, and knowledge, Turner sets out to rethink medical sociology asan exciting perspective on the principal transformations of modernsociety. In this broad historical and sociological work, Turner asks and answershow economic changes of recent decades have undermined both socialcohesion and the conditions that promote good health. He explores themacro-level importance of social capital (people's involvement orinvestments in society), inequality, and citizenship rights in hisexplanation of health and illness in modern societies, and examines atthe micro level embodiment (our relationship to our own bodies) innarratives of illness. The New Medical Sociology is part of the Contemporary Societies series.