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SECOND OPINION: AN INTRODUCTION TO HEALTH SOCIOLOGY (3RD edn) John Germov (ed) South Melbourne: Oxford University Press 2005, PB 548 pp, AUD 65.00 ISBN 0 19 551741 5
The publication of the third edition of second Opinion, edited by John Germov from the University of Newcastle, is to be warmly welcomed by all teachers and students in the field of health sociology. The publication continues and improves upon the high quality of previous editions, while also providing important teaching and learning innovations. As revealed through the book, while we live in a health-obsessed age, 'we hear very little about the social origins of disease or our social responsibility to address the living and working conditions that impact on our health' (2005:1). Through its chapters, contributed by an impressive range of researchers from sociology and other disciplines, this book shows the pressing need for those of us researching and teaching in health to further our contributions to changing this situation, while also providing a wonderful basis through which to inspire our students to do likewise.
The book contains 21 chapters organised into three major parts, while also including significant introductory and concluding sections. The three chapters constituting the Introduction provide an overview of health sociology in the context of other models of health and illness, and theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of health. Part One then engages...