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Dedication
To Cynthia
The Social Causes of Health and Disease
Third Edition
William C. Cockerham
polity
Copyright © William C. Cockerham 2021
The right of William C. Cockerham to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First edition published in 2007 by Polity Press
Second edition published in 2013 by Polity Press
This third edition first published in 2021 by Polity Press
Polity Press
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All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4037-2
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Cockerham, William C., author.
Title: The social causes of health and illness / William C. Cockerham.
Other titles: Social causes of health and disease Description: Third edition. | Cambridge, UK ; Medford, MA : Polity Press, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “Leading medical sociologist investigates the social factors that determine our health”-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020015573 (print) | LCCN 2020015574 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509540358 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509540365 (paperback) | ISBN 9781509540372 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Social medicine. | Health--Social aspects. | Diseases--Social aspects.
Classification: LCC RA418 .C658 2020 (print) | LCC RA418 (ebook) | DDC 362.1--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020015573 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020015574
The publisher has used its best endeavors to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.
Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.
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Preface
For more than three-quarters of a century, medical sociology has evolved as a subdiscipline of mainstream sociology. In the beginning, it was more indebted to medicine than sociology for its support, even though the field evolved into one of the most popular sociological specialties. Time invariably brings change, and medical sociology has indeed changed since its inception. The old claim that medical sociology is atheoretical has been definitively quashed; there is now even a specialized journal (Social Theory & Health) and books on the topic. Sociological theory has become one of the most essential and distinctive research tools in the field.
Moreover, medical sociology has positioned itself to provide even more precise and extensive analyses of the social aspects of health and disease. The first edition of this book represents one of the first treatises of the twenty-first century describing a new direction for research – namely, the investigation of the social determinants of health – that as predicted has become commonplace. This third edition follows up on that argument. The book begins with the notion that society can make you sick and then explains
