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Bodies and Society

Module description

What is a ‘normal’ body and what does this look like? Does the body end at the skin? Are there different ways to ‘do’ the body? This module will introduce you to contemporary sociological and anthropological approaches to understanding how bodies are made, manipulated, shaped, reproduced, represented and experienced. You will consider theory on how bodily norms are created and reinforced, moral ideas around the body and ‘naturalness’, training and caring for the body, bodily boundaries, ownership, and how bodies are shaped by ‘culture’ as well as environments and biomedicine. Lectures, seminars and core readings will allow you explore theory and specific topics relating to bodies in contemporary society.

Module aims - intentions of the module

Understanding how societies and cultures shape bodies is critical to understanding the meanings and experiences of health and illness in contemporary society. The aim of the module is to introduce you to central concepts and analytic frameworks through which sociologists and anthropologists’ study and approach ‘the body’ in society and culture. This module will familiarise you with scholarship that takes bodies to be historically culturally contingent and sites for important social, cultural, moral and identity work across cultures and allow you to develop insights into how health, illness and ‘deviance’ are experienced and governed. The module seeks to introduce you to the rich body of work in sociology, anthropology and STS around bodies and their many meanings, and the importance of critically placing bodies in time, place, cultural, power, and policy contexts. You will develop research, writing, critical thinking and presentation skills through your participation and engagement with module lectures, seminars, readings and portfolio tasks.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate your knowledge of sociological and anthropological work and debate on bodies as historically and culturally contingent, and as material loci of social and cultural practices
• 2. Develop arguments regarding specific contemporary topics concerning bodies and their relationship to topics of health and illness, social control, moral, identity, and inequalities based on sociological and anthropological theory and research

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Evaluate and analyse contemporary sociological and anthropological texts
• 4. Appreciate key issues relevant to the contemporary world, and develop comparative, and cross-cultural insight

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Demonstrate transferable skills in formulating, researching and addressing focused questions;
• 6. Demonstrate cross-cultural understanding, translation and comparison, which will be of advantage in an increasing range of professional settings.

Syllabus plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Different theoretical approaches to the body (e.g. Foucault, Bourdieu, Goffman, Mol) 
• The body as a natural symbol and the ‘natural’ body
• Bodies as sites of construction and consumption 
• Body:environment relationships
• Local biologies
• Bodies and technologies
• Bodily boundaries and fluid bodies

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to redo the assessment(s) as defined above. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.  

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Dreger AD (2005) One of Us: Conjoined Twins and the Future of Normal. Illustrated edition. Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England: Harvard University Press.
• Gill R, Henwood K and McLean C (2005) Body Projects and the Regulation of Normative Masculinity. Body & Society 11(1). SAGE Publications Ltd: 37–62.
• Lock M and Farquhar J (eds) (2007) Beyond the Body Proper: Reading the Anthropology of Material Life. Durham N.C.: Duke University Press Books.
• Mol, A. (2002). The Body Multiple. Ontology in Medical Practice. Durham: Duke University Press
• Malacrida C, Low J, Malacrida C, et al. (2016) Sociology of the Body: A Reader. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.
• Rich E and Evans J (2005) ‘Fat Ethics’ – The Obesity Discourse and Body Politics. Social Theory & Health 3(4): 341–358
• Scheper-Hughes, N., and M.M. Lock. (1987). “The Mindful Body: A Prolegomenon to Future Work in Medical Anthropology.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly 1(1):6–41
• Shilling, C. (2004) The Body in Culture, Technology and Society. First Edition. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Key words search

Bodies, society, identity, culture, power