The Routledge International Handbook of Critical Issues in Health and Illness is a multidisciplinary reference book that brings together cutting-edge health and illness topics from around the globe. It offers a range of theoretical and critical perspectives to provide contemporary insights into complex health issues that can offer ways to address inequitable patterns of illness and ill health.

This collection, written by an international pool of expert academics from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, is unique in providing theoretical and critical analyses on key health topics, considering power and broader social structures that influence health and illness outcomes. The chapters are organised in three parts. The first covers medical contexts; here, chapters provide commentary and critical analysis of the history of medicine, medicalisation, pharmaceuticalisation, services and care, medical technology, diagnosis, screening, personalised medicine, and complementary and alternative medicine. The second part covers life contexts; chapters include a range of life contexts that have implications for health, including gender, sexuality, reproduction, disability, ethnicity, indigeneity, inequality, ageing, and dying. The third part covers shifting contextual domains; chapters consider contemporary areas of life that are rapidly changing, including bioethics, digital health, migration, medical travel, geography and place, commercialisation, globalisation, and climate change.

The Routledge International Handbook of Critical Issues in Health and Illness is a key contemporary reference text for scholars, students, researchers, and professionals across disciplines, including sociology, psychology, anthropology, geography, medicine, public health, and health science.
About the Author:

Kerry Chamberlain is Emeritus Professor of Social and Health Psychology at Massey University and Senior Research Fellow at Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He is editor-in-chief of the journal Methods in Psychology and co-editor (with Antonia Lyons) of the book series Critical Approaches to Health.

Antonia Lyons is Professor of Health Psychology and Head of School of the School of Health, Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. She is co-editor for Qualitative Research in Psychology, Associate Editor for Psychology and Health, and co-editor (with Kerry Chamberlain) of the book series Critical Approaches to Health.