Taking as its point of departure recent developments in health and social theory, this work brings together a range of international scholars to reflect upon matters of health, medicine and society at the end of 1999. Thematic in its focus, contributors draw upon a range of contemporary theories, both modernist and postmodernist, in order to illustrate these issues, including debates on health and social structure, the contested nature of the boy, the salience of consumption and risk, and the challenge of emotions both inside and outside the formal health care arena. The book provides a "state-of-the-art" assessment of health related issues at the millennium and a cogent set of arguments for the centrality of health to contemporary social theory. It should be of interest to students and researchers in health studies, public health, medical sociology, medicine and nursing.