The aim of this book is to explore a variety of ways in which a ‘materialdiscursive’
approach to health and illness can be implemented. The word
‘discursive’ is used here in a very broad sense to designate a range of
approaches which recognise the socially and linguistically mediated nature of
human experience. The term ‘material’ simply signals attention to the physical
features of human lives, including not only our bodies and corporeal activities,
but also our environment, institutions, technology and artefacts