Medicalisation, healthicisation and 'personal' strategies have been identified as the main factors contributing to the socially mediated experience of sleep and sleep disorders in modern societies. Medicalisation and healthicisation are publicly available discourses. But the degree to which...

This paper, drawing on our own research findings data, explores the embodiment and embedment of sleeping in children\'s everyday/night lives. Key themes here include children\'s attitudes and feelings toward the dormant body, the processes, routines and rituals associated with going to bed and...

Abstract: This paper takes the neglected sociological matter of sleep and applies the insights contained therein to issues and debates within the sociology of consumption. Sleep, it is argued, is pursued if not consumed in a variety of ways in consumer culture, including its (lifestyle)...

Today, alongside many other proscriptions, women are expected to abstain or at least limit their alcohol consumption during pregnancy. This advice is reinforced through warning labels on bottles and cans of alcoholic drinks. In most (but not all) official policies, this is linked to a risk of...

This paper discusses the various kinds of pressure placed on children to consume and how their parents view and deal with this. It focuses on the consumption of clothing, the marketing of 'fashion' to youngsters and the commercial opportunities presented to children to construct a particular...

This paper examines the role of the media in articulating and sustaining the tension between romance, fantasy and reason as key dimensions of wedding consumption. Two types of media are analysed as evidence of the development of a popular wedding consumer culture in Britain. First, I cite...

A 'think piece' in both style and content, this article offers some thoughts and reflections on selected themes and issues which, we believe, provide some important indicators not simply of the sociology of health and illness's current status, but also of its future prospects. Four key themes...

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Steve Fuller's article on the events of September 11th raises a number of important questions about the role of sociology in public discussion and debate. This brief response, in taking up this challenge, focuses on the issue of bio-terrorism. In doing so, a balance sheet is provided of the...

In Asylums, Goffman [1961. Asylums. London: Penguin] identified some permeable features of the old mental hospitals but presented them as exceptions to the rule and focused on their impermeable aspects. We argue that this emphasis is no longer valid and offer an alternative ideal type that...