3 Review(s)

Over four days in July 2005, historians, health economists, medical doctors and nurses, anthropologists, writers, sociologists and many more travelled to Oxford, England for the fourth annual 'Making Sense of Health, Illness and Disease' conference organised by Inter-Disciplinary.Net. The atmosphere at Mansfield College was charged as the fifty-five presenters gathered to share findings from their research and continued to discuss and debate long after the formal seminar periods ended and well beyond the coffee breaks, culminating in further collaborations in the form of joint-authored articles, conference projects and friendships. Delegates were driven by a shared desire to understand the challenges and complexities of inhabiting a social and physical body in cross-cultural and inter-personal setting where meanings are in a constant state of transformation. This conference, concerned with health and ill-health, brought together participants with different nationalities, backgrounds, interests and approaches and the diversity of the event is reflected in this collection of essays.Disciplines represented include a wide range of social sciences (anthropology, sociology, psychology), arts (literature, visual arts, philosophy) and medicine (nursing, physiotherapy, palliative care). Such variation provided a valuable chance for interdisciplinary dialogue amongst delegates who were mostly working within traditionally defined academic disciplines, despite the increasingly multidisciplinary nature of health research in the UK and beyond. The danger of such cross-disciplinary conversation is that topics may be covered at a superficial level without a full understanding of the research context from which the ideas emerge. This is where clarifying questions and constructive criticism have proved so helpful: the philosophers remind us to refine our terms whilst the practitioners check that the more abstract thinkers are aware of the realities of patient experiences. In the process of compiling this volume, we have strayed from the original conference presentation schedule to allow for emerging themes to be explored in appropriate sections.Creating subdivisions was not a straightforward matter, as it was apparent throughout the conference that participants' interests overlapped in both theory and practice. We hope that reorganising the material presented offers new opportunities for comparison between chapters, juxtaposing diverging research approaches in a thought-provoking manner.