Materialities of Care: Encountering Health and Illness Through Artefacts and Architecture

Special Issue of the journal Sociology of Health and Illness

Chrissy Buse, Daryl Martin and Sarah Nettleton have edited a special issue which has just come out online in the journal Sociology of Health and Illness. The theme of the special issue is Materialities of Care: Encountering Health and Illness Through Artefacts and Architecture http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/shil.2018.40.issue-2/issuetoc] The special issue will also appear as a book, to be released later this year https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Materialities+of+Care%3A+Encountering+Health+and+Illness+Through+Artefacts+and+Architecture-p-9781119499732].

The special issue addresses the role of material culture within health and social care encounters, including everyday objects, dress, furniture and architecture. It aims to makes visible the mundane and often unnoticed aspects of material culture, and to explore interrelations between materials and care practices. The special issue explores these themes in different contexts, including articles focused on hospitals, care homes, hospices, domestic households, streets and stairwells and museums.

The publication builds on an earlier research symposium Materialities of Care: Encountering Health and Illness Through Objects, Artefacts, and Architecture https://www.york.ac.uk/sociology/about/department/2015/materialitiesofcare/], held at York in 2015, supported by the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness http://www.shifoundation.org.uk/], which led to the development of a research network organised by Chrissy Buse and Daryl Martin called ‘Materialities of Care’ http://materialitiesofcare.co.uk/about/] (see also twitter @materialities1). It is an interdisciplinary network which brings together people from a range of disciplines, including: sociology; history; archaeology; architecture; geography and museum studies, as well as museum curators, artists and other practitioners.