Showing papers in "Health Sociology Review in 2020"
TL;DR: An analysis of a deeply problematic and troubling dual aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic finds disturbing indications of disablism and oppressive biopolitics in the ‘enforcing of normalcy’ that frames and dominates COVID reconstruction of social life.
Abstract: In this article we offer an analysis of a deeply problematic and troubling dual aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic: how disability is being understood within normative accounts of health and medicine to frame, interpret, and respond to its spread and implications; what are the terms of inclusion and exclusion in altered social life in the COVID crisis; and how people with disabilities fare. We find disturbing indications of disablism and oppressive biopolitics in the 'enforcing of normalcy' that frames and dominates COVID reconstruction of social life - a situation that we suggest needs urgent deciphering, critique, and intervention.
107 citations
TL;DR: A rapid sociological response on the social life of science in the emerging COVID-19 pandemic to speculate on how evidence-making might be done differently going forwards is offered.
Abstract: Mathematical models are key actors in policy and public responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The projections from COVID-19 models travel beyond science into policy decisions and social life. Treating models as 'boundary objects', and focusing on media and public communications, we 'follow the numbers' to trace the social life of key projections from prominent mathematical models of COVID-19. Public deliberations and controversies about models and their projections are illuminating. These help trace how projections are 'made multiple' in their enactments as 'public troubles'. We need an approach to evidence-making for policy which is emergent and adaptive, and which treats science as an entangled effect of public concern made in social practices. We offer a rapid sociological response on the social life of science in the emerging COVID-19 pandemic to speculate on how evidence-making might be done differently going forwards.
46 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that the coronavirus pandemic is functioning like an ethnomethodological ‘breaching experiment’, putting a gigantic spanner in the works of neoliberal governance, in the process exposing the widening cracks and fissures of what I have called the ‘fractured society’.
Abstract: In this brief paper, I argue that the coronavirus pandemic is functioning like an ethnomethodological 'breaching experiment'. In short, it is putting a gigantic spanner in the works of neoliberal governance, in the process exposing the widening cracks and fissures of what I have called the 'fractured society'. I begin by recalling Garfinkel's notion of the breaching experiment and by listing the principal attributes of the fractured society. I then explore the response to the coronavirus in the UK, from the government's initial commitment to 'herd immunity' to its present policy of 'muddling through'. The bulk of the remainder of this contribution addresses precisely how this global health crisis shines a harsh and unforgiving searchlight on the strategies and policies pursued by governments in the UK since 2010, and most especially after the passing of the Health and Social Care Act of 2012. In the closing paragraphs, I examine possible scenarios for a post-fractured society, making particular use of Fraser's concepts on 'reactionary' versus 'progressive populism', and conclude with a comment on sociology and engagement.
45 citations
TL;DR: Although it is still early to assess the full spectrum of damage caused by lack of central-level planning, this article argues against COVID-19 being viewed as a ‘great leveller’ and suggests that the authors inhabit somatic societies that regularly employ the vocabulary of pathology/disease to determine social health.
Abstract: In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, public health authorities in India presented a contradictory picture between their role in assisting the state to mitigate the global crisis and dealing coercively with the needs of its diverse populations. Conventionally, public health is viewed as an evidence-based profession that is above politics. Yet national responses to COVID-19 in India reveal the embeddedness of health and illnesses in the larger politics of the state. Although it is still early to assess the full spectrum of damage caused by lack of central-level planning, this article argues against COVID-19 being viewed as a 'great leveller'. Rather, it suggests that we inhabit somatic societies that regularly employ the vocabulary of pathology/disease to determine social health. Moreover, the Indian experience illustrates how, even during a pandemic, 'social distancing' is not an apolitical notion. It becomes a measure for the state to co-opt scientific interventions of risk mitigation and relay them to people as a metaphor for exclusion: thereby exacerbating deeper structural inequities around which access to health and well-being of the population is organised.
31 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that communities’ manufacturing activities during the COVID pandemic relate to UK austerity politics’ effects on healthcare and government failure to ensure medical crisis supplies.
Abstract: Shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical devices needed during the COVID-19 pandemic were widely reported in early 2020. In response, civic DIY volunteers explored how they could produce the required equipment. Members of communities such as hacker- and makerspaces employed their skills and tools to manufacture, for example, face shields and masks. The article discusses these civic innovation practices and their broader social implications by relating them to critical making theory. Methodologically, it is based on a digital ethnography approach, focusing on hacker and maker communities in the UK. Communities' DIY initiatives display characteristics of critical making and 'craftivism', as they assessed and counteracted politicised healthcare supply shortages. It is argued that their manufacturing activities during the COVID pandemic relate to UK austerity politics' effects on healthcare and government failure to ensure medical crisis supplies. Facilitated by open source design, communities' innovation enabled healthcare emergency equipment. At the same time, their DIY manufacturing raises practical as well as ethical issues concerning, among other things, efficacy and safety of use.
25 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that an analysis of popular media can provide valuable insights into how everyday experiences of safety, risk and wellbeing are being shaped and contested with dating and hookup app use, and that these insights can be used to develop meaningful health promotion strategies.
Abstract: In this paper we examine how popular media reporting positions dating and hookup app use as a 'social problem' that impacts on health and wellbeing The paper adopts a mixed-methods media studies approach to create and analyse a dataset of over 6,000 international news articles published within a 12-month period, drawing on thematic content analysis and inductive and deductive techniques These analyses are framed in relation to online consultations with Australian sexual health professionals and app users Applying Briggs and Hallin's theory of biocommunicability (2007) - which proposes that contemporary health professionals' scientific framing of public health problems are, in part, shaped by popular media discourses - we identify a significant category of supportive discussions of safer app use within social news and lifestyle reporting This discursive space features what we have termed 'vernacular pedagogies' of app use, revealing app users' safety strategies, and their experiences of pleasure and playfulness We argue that an analysis of popular media can provide valuable insights into how everyday experiences of safety, risk and wellbeing are being shaped and contested with dating and hookup app use, and that these insights can be used to develop meaningful health promotion strategies
20 citations
TL;DR: From its first-recorded emergence in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019, COVID-19 has spread quickly around the world and has brought with it rapid and rapid spread of the COVID crisis.
Abstract: From its first-recorded emergence in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019, COVID-19 has spread quickly around the world. Not merely a health crisis, the COVID crisis has brought with it rapid and...
19 citations
TL;DR: This article draws on two case studies of sex toys developed by leading sex-tech/teledildonic companies Lovense and Kiiroo to examine how the relationship between data and sexual subjectivity is being transformed through these emerging technologies.
Abstract: Wireless sex toys are new technologies that enable sexual partners to connect remotely across long distances. Promoted as enhancing intimacy and pleasure as part of a healthy sex life, these devices buttress a 'sex for health' discourse which relies on the collection of intimate data purportedly used to improve current and subsequent teledildonics models. This article draws on two case studies of sex toys developed by leading sex-tech/teledildonic companies Lovense® and Kiiroo® to examine how the relationship between data and sexual subjectivity is being transformed through these emerging technologies. Applying concepts from new materialism, and extending the work of Faustino [(2018). Rebooting an old script by new means: Teledildonics-the technological return to the 'coital imperative'. Sexuality & Culture, 22, 243-257]', we explore how sexual practices, intimacy and pleasure become 'datafied' through these sensory technologies. Inspired by the concept of the 'sexuality-assemblage', we pose teledildonic-enhanced sex as a 'sexuotechnical-assemblage', a term that highlights the uniquely technological dimensions of sex in the age of teledildonics. Approaching these devices as sexuotechnical-assemblages highlights the generative role of data as lubricants of long-distance intimacy, and central actors in the (re)making of sexual subjects, and by extension, 'healthy' sexuality.
16 citations
TL;DR: The findings show that while both queer and straight women use hook-up apps to find sex, hook-ups, dates, and relationships, they are also central to building community, friendship, and sociality between women.
Abstract: Hook-up apps are an increasingly popular way for women to meet other people for sex, dating, relationships, and more. As a mundane and habitual form of media, the multiple uses of hook-up apps allow for the production of intimacy in surprising and complex ways. This paper draws on narrative interviews with 15 self-identifying women to explore how dating and hook-up apps help produce 'intimate publics' for women. The field of intimate publics available to women users of hook-up apps is broader than those afforded by in-app interactions; there is an entire network of intimacy, sociality, and publicity that forms around hook-up apps. Our findings show that while both queer and straight women use hook-up apps to find sex, hook-ups, dates, and relationships, they are also central to building community, friendship, and sociality between women.
16 citations
TL;DR: This work aimed to explore rural GPs’ perceptions and experiences of GP vocational learning in relation to rural places, as this may aid in developing practitioners' scope, values and community orientation, and increase propensity for rural practice.
Abstract: Globally there is an urban/rural divide in relation to health and healthcare access. A key strategy for addressing general practitioner shortages in rural areas is GP vocational training in rural places, as this may aid in developing practitioners' scope, values and community orientation, and increase propensity for rural practice. This creates a need for deeper understanding of the nature and quality of this training. Rural GPs are well-positioned to reflect on vocational learning in 'place'. We aimed to explore rural GPs' perceptions and experiences of GP vocational learning in relation to rural places. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 GPs based in smaller rural communities in Tasmania. Inductive and theoretical thematic analysis was undertaken. Rural places provide learning opportunities for GP registrars, which shape the relationships between GPs and registrars and their communities. Rural GPs are committed to developing the next generation and improving access to primary care for their communities. Rural places provide unique learning environments for general practice, including rich learning, relationships and community commitment.
13 citations
TL;DR: The politics of the COVID-19 pandemic is interrogated from a postcolonial perspective, inviting health sociologists to scratch beneath the surface of political problems such as racism, and attend to the complex heterogeneity of health politics in the pandemic.
Abstract: This article interrogates the politics of the COVID-19 pandemic from a postcolonial perspective. One alarming concern during the pandemic is the rise of racism against Asians all over the world. However, little explored behind media reports are the legacies, tensions and challenges left by imperial domination inherited from the past, especially within the postcolonial regimes in Asia, such as Hong Kong and China. Drawing upon postcolonialism as a critical lens, this article makes perceptible the intractable issues of health politics. Postcolonial challenges shown by COVID-19 include immigration, changing politico-juridical definitions of identity, the legacy left by the Soviet era which poses an obstacle to modernising China's healthcare system, and the boom of birth tourism welcomed by the marketised turn of health and tourism policy in Hong Kong in the post-SARS era. A postcolonial perspective invites health sociologists to scratch beneath the surface of political problems such as racism, and attend to the complex heterogeneity of health politics in the pandemic.
TL;DR: In this paper, a group of women from a neighbourhood of Monterrey, Mexico where I have spent the past year conducting ethnographic research was asked to decide whether to continue weekly health-related topics.
Abstract: On 19 March 2020, I last met with a group of women from a neighbourhood of Monterrey, Mexico where I have spent the past year conducting ethnographic research. They had scheduled a meeting to decide whether to continue our weekly talks on health-related topics. 'Is this coronavirus real?' was the question guiding the meeting. Women shared their thoughts on their feelings on the threat that predominates in biomedical discourse. An air of resignation pervaded their speech. Nearly all of them suffer from chronic diseases and they clearly perceive the risk of their own death. However, the material conditions of their lives limit the scope of their strategies to protect themselves. A dialogue emerged between the women's request for clarity regarding the pandemic and me, a researcher called on as a physician. This article seeks to reflect on the political and moral aspects of everyday life that configure risk perception in the context of the WHO-declared pandemic. I analyse the dialogue sustained in the meeting as part of an ethnographic research I am conducting in this neighbourhood. Most of its residents live under precarious circumstances, which is a fundamental element in understanding their responses to the current COVID-19 crisis.
TL;DR: Bourdieu’s theoretical concept of hysteresis is concluded to help to understand how changes in the healthcare field may lead to a mismatch between the field and the habitus manifested in interactions between patients, relatives and healthcare professionals.
Abstract: When a person experiences a severe stroke, their relatives must assume the role of partners in the rehabilitation process. Drawing on Bourdieu's field theory, we investigated the potential gap between the subjective expectations of relatives in terms of the assistance and care they can offer patients with severe brain injuries and the objective constraints of a healthcare field. Using data from observations, as well as interviews with relatives and official documents, our study shows how some relatives, reliant on their habitus, bring to their collaboration with healthcare professionals an expectation that the healthcare field will be able to take care of their multiple individual needs. However, due to hysteresis - a gap between their dispositions and the objective possibilities of the transformed healthcare field - these relatives are not equipped to recognise, grasp and occupy their new field position. We conclude that Bourdieu's theoretical concept of hysteresis may help to understand how changes in the healthcare field may lead to a mismatch between the field and the habitus manifested in interactions between patients, relatives and healthcare professionals, so that the ill-adjusted habitus of relatives leads to missed chances in relation to the opportunities objectively offered by the field.
TL;DR: How participants conceptualised PrEP, patients and GPs at this key turning point in the history of HIV prevention is explored, with broad implications for thinking about experts and expertise, the implementation of previously specialised medicine into mainstream settings, and the anticipated challenges of LGBTIQ+ inclusive healthcare.
Abstract: The broadening of access to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in Australia has rekindled debates about which types of clinicians are best suited to deliver HIV prevention innovations: specialist HIV services or primary care physicians and general practitioners (GPs). We conducted 21 semi-structured qualitative interviews in 2017 with Australian HIV sector experts working across policy, advocacy, clinical service provision, research, and health promotion. These interviews took place before a national policy commitment to subsidising access to PrEP was achieved. We explored how participants conceptualised PrEP, patients and GPs at this key turning point in the history of HIV prevention. Participants expressed varied views regarding GPs' anticipated ability to successfully navigate the potential complexities associated with PrEP roll-out. While participants were supportive of greater patient access to PrEP, they expressed concerns about non-specialist GPs' cultural competence and expertise regarding sexuality and clinical practice, and the potential for patients to experience discrimination and homophobia from non-expert GPs. This study has broad implications for thinking about experts and expertise, the implementation of previously specialised medicine into mainstream settings, and the anticipated challenges of LGBTIQ+ inclusive healthcare.
TL;DR: A healthcare environment that is under-prepared to meet the complex health needs of transgender individuals is identified and intervention strategies beyond individual-level support are called for.
Abstract: While recognition of transgender people has increased in Vietnam, this population continues to face significant stigma and discrimination within their families and in public, including in medical s...
TL;DR: This study highlights how barriers to care can lie at the centre of patient-provider interactions and identified three racial microaggressions used to justify the challenges of providing care to people from First Nations, immigrant and refugee backgrounds.
Abstract: Although health services in Australia have an aim to provide inclusive care for their patients/clients, this study highlights how barriers to care can lie at the centre of patient-provider interactions. Racial microaggression is a subtle form of racism that can occur in health settings, leading to further exclusion for First Nations Australians, immigrants and refugees. This paper is guided by Derrida's approach to deconstructionism by unpacking how language is used by health professionals - as holders of organisational power - and how they construct 'truths' or discourses about clients that historically have been marginalised by health services and system. Data comprise 21 interviews with staff from two rural health services. It identified three racial microaggressions were used to justify the challenges of providing care to people from First Nations, immigrant and refugee backgrounds: (1) Participants problematised culture(s) of service users; (2) participants implied cultural superiority in their conceptualisation of 'other' cultures; and (3) participants shared stories of inactions, discomfort and relegating of responsibility. The findings identified these discourses as forms of racial microaggression that can potentially lead to further exclusion of people seeking services and support.
TL;DR: It is argued that participants viewed the expanding epidemic and apps as intimately linked, regarding the apps as ‘risky spaces’ for ‘ risky behaviour’, but neglected the agentive capabilities of the apps and how they have transformed sexual practice.
Abstract: The HIV epidemic in the Philippines has been expanding rapidly, with most newly diagnosed cases occurring among 'men who have sex with men' (MSM). New social contexts of HIV are evident in the evolving phenomenon of more MSM seeking partners online via social networking applications ('apps'). This study examines findings from a virtual ethnography of app use among MSM, focus group discussions with community-based healthcare workers, and key informant interviews with healthcare workers, policymakers and researchers in Metro Manila. We argue that participants viewed the expanding epidemic and apps as intimately linked, regarding the apps as 'risky spaces' for 'risky behaviour'. However, such narratives neglected the agentive capabilities of the apps and how they have transformed sexual practice, creating new ways of being as sexual subjects, while perpetuating old imaginaries among healthcare workers of 'hard-to-reach' populations. Such narratives of 'risk' have led to new interventions by healthcare workers on the apps, viewing these technologies as opportunities to reach more MSM for health promotion. However, the interventions have created new complexities by reconfiguring boundaries with target populations. By conducting community-based outreach through encouraging behaviour change in one-to-one interactions with app users, the potential impact of these interventions is limited.
TL;DR: A notable absence of comprehensive lactation management information targeted directly to bereaved mothers is found and curtails maternal subjectivies and diverse lactation practices and isolates women dealing with the painful contradictions of lactation after loss.
Abstract: Lactation is a potent signifier of maternal love and care commonly associated with early motherhood and infant survival. It is common, however, for bereaved mothers who have recently undergone misc...
TL;DR: In this article, Lupton asks us to develop a new ethics of affinity, care and compassion towards data, and I am hit by a wave of compassion for my data selves.
Abstract: I have written in a journal since I was in my late teens, at someone else’s suggestion. I have filled hundreds, or maybe thousands of pages with personal ‘data’ – thoughts, feelings, lists of food, spending, goals, hopes, dreams, exercise, and more. I have thrown them all away, not wanting to keep this personal data from the past, yet Lupton asks us to develop a ‘new ethics of affinity, care and compassion towards them’ [data] (p. 125), and I am hit by a wave of compassion for my ‘data selves’.
TL;DR: It is suggested that immediate postpartum LARC insertion policies, which have proliferated in the U.S. since 2012, exemplify the new era of LARC hegemony, in which urgency, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and outcomes dominate both health policy and clinical practice around these contraceptive technologies.
Abstract: Routinely positioned as the ‘first-line option’ for contraceptive choice-making, long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) promotion efforts have come under critical scrutiny by reproductive just...
TL;DR: In identifying the scope of genital fashioning, this research reveals a continuum of genitalfashioning practices, both physically and discursively mobilised by women to negotiate their identity, sexuality, and femininity.
Abstract: Genital fashioning practices, such as Brazilian waxing and female genital cosmetic surgery, have become increasingly prevalent within contemporary western societies. This paper explores the role of...
TL;DR: The responses of Justin Trudeau and Donald Trump are examined suggesting that their respective struggles to acknowledge and respond to the public health threat were not simply the result of a lack of available information to inform rational policy decisions.
Abstract: This paper explores how masculinity may help us understand the varying ways political leaders are responding to the coronavirus crisis. By focusing directly on masculinity as a social process, this analysis contributes to the broader literature on gender and leadership, unpacking the gendered double bind that leaders who identify as men must navigate in acknowledging and responding to risks. I examine the responses of Justin Trudeau and Donald Trump suggesting that their respective struggles to acknowledge and respond to the public health threat were not simply the result of a lack of available information to inform rational policy decisions. Acknowledging risk and taking measures to prevent rather than 'fight' are not culturally neutral, they are coded as feminine and 'weak'. Clearly, the delay in the response and subsequent spread of the virus in North America was not inevitable, other jurisdictions were able to respond more quickly. The masculinity double bind may have been one of the factors that undermined a prompt response in the increasingly macho context of North America.
TL;DR: How Kirsten Harley’s knowledge of sociology has shaped her responses to the illness is considered, including the process of meaning making, health system navigation, interactions with health professionals, advocacy, becoming a ‘passive activist’, the role of technology and what sociologists might learn from a life so dramatically changed.
Abstract: This article is a discussion between two former colleagues and longstanding friends about the lived experience of illness and disability. In January 2013, Kirsten Harley, a promising early career s...
TL;DR: It is suggested it is possible to enhance the well-being of men who drink heavily by addressing specific gendered intra-actions in the making of heavy drinking.
Abstract: Alcohol consumption is a significant public health concern in Australia, with men disproportionately represented in treatment for health issues related to heavy drinking. Despite this, little is known about the experiences of these men or the gender dynamics that may shape heavy drinking. Increasingly, the treatment of alcohol and other drug-related issues, including those related to heavy drinking, is based on a biopsychosocial approach. Within this framework, heavy drinking is understood as a symptom of individual pathology in the context of various social 'factors' that influence individual capacity to exercise agency. Following the work of Karen Barad, this article employs a feminist science studies account of agency to formulate heavy drinking as a gendered 'phenomenon': enacted and sustained through the 'intra-action' of other phenomena. Drawing on interviews with men who drink heavily, our analysis explores how the phenomenon of men's heavy drinking materialises through the intra-actions of gender, isolation and healthcare. We argue that heavy drinking is not a sign of failed individual agency but an expression of entangled agencies. In concluding, we suggest it is possible to enhance the well-being of men who drink heavily by addressing specific gendered intra-actions in the making of heavy drinking.
TL;DR: To better meet the needs of these young people, greater attention must be paid to strengthening youth and community awareness of the availability of contraception including emergency contraception, pregnancy options, and access to abortion information and services.
Abstract: Although abortion rates appear to be declining in high-income nations, there is still a need for accessible, safe abortion services. However, limited attention has been paid to understanding the social contexts which shape access to abortion information and services for communities who are less engaged with sexual and reproductive health care more generally. This paper explores the views and experiences of 27 migrant and refugee young people (16-24 years old) living in Sydney, Australia, regarding unintended pregnancy and abortion. Pregnancy outside marriage was described by all participants as a shameful prospect as it revealed pre-marital sexual activity. Even when abortion was described as culturally and/or religiously unacceptable, it was believed many families would find an abortion preferable to continuing an unintended pregnancy outside marriage. However, a pervasive culture of silence regarding sexual and reproductive health may limit access to quality information and support in this area. To better meet the needs of these young people, greater attention must be paid to strengthening youth and community awareness of the availability of contraception including emergency contraception, pregnancy options, and access to abortion information and services.
TL;DR: It is found that children with a high SES seem to encounter less difficulties in adapting their lifestyle to professionals’ recommendations than low SES children, because their habitus facilitates the internalisation of health norms and they have greater access to economic, social and cultural capitals.
Abstract: Over the last two decades, childhood obesity has emerged as a major public health issue in Switzerland. Health professionals and public health organisations now frame this condition as a disease th...
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that bodies are constructed as being at low or high risk by sexual health professionals (based on health and lifestyle criteria) and that access to either the COCP or PrEP is largely based on this former classification.
Abstract: This article demonstrates that 'bodies at risk' in sexual health are socially constructed. It does so via a heuristic comparison between two molecular technologies that are central to the promotion of sexual health: the combined oral contraceptive pill (COCP) and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in two sexual health institutions in the western part of Switzerland, the article presents two main findings. First, it argues that bodies are constructed as being at low or high risk by sexual health professionals (based on health and lifestyle criteria). Second, it shows that access to either the COCP or PrEP is largely based on this former classification. The article also demonstrates that there are ambivalent situations in which sexual health professionals seek compromises between different risks, and pragmatically adapt their medical protocols.
TL;DR: It is argued that greater progress towards person-centred care requires novel forms of evidence grounded in critical social inquiry into experiences of treatment and support among people living with BPD, and the varied social, cultural and political contexts underpinning these experiences.
Abstract: Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a highly contentious psychiatric diagnosis with ongoing tensions over nomenclature, aetiology and treatment recommendations. This article examines a number of these tensions and assesses how greater attention to the voices of people living with BPD may help inform the delivery of new modes of person-centred care. To this end, we present a critical social science research agenda for investigating the experiences, social contexts and support needs of people living with BPD. We canvass issues pertaining to the diagnosis of BPD (including its name), the strongly gendered dimensions of BPD, and the pressing need to improve support for people living with this condition. Throughout our analysis, we indicate how critical interdisciplinary inquiry may drive new responses to these challenges. Our analysis is illustrated with reference to experiences of BPD recounted in two Australia-wide surveys conducted in 2011 and 2017. We argue that greater progress towards person-centred care requires novel forms of evidence grounded in critical social inquiry into experiences of treatment and support among people living with BPD, and the varied social, cultural and political contexts underpinning these experiences.
TL;DR: This special edition brings together new sociological work exploring the nexus between technology, human sexuality and health in biomedical, biomechanical and bioethics.
Abstract: This special edition brings together new sociological work exploring the nexus between technology, human sexuality and health. In recent decades, rapid advances in biomedical, biomechanical and bio...