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The problem of 'social suffering': The challenge to social science

Wilkinson, Iain M. (2004) The problem of 'social suffering': The challenge to social science. Health Sociology Review, 13 (2). pp. 113-121. ISSN 1446-1242. (doi:10.5172/hesr.13.2.113) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:37400)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.5172/hesr.13.2.113

Abstract

This article presents a critical review of contemporary research on 'social suffering'. It dwells substantially upon the ways in which social researchers account for the problem of bringing the lived reality of suffering to public attention.

The author considers the possibility that it is the public failure of writers to provide a sufficient account of suffering that, paradoxically, works to convey an essential part of how this takes place in human experience; namely, as a most painful denial of meaning and a terminal struggle for understanding. Such public failing, it is argued, has a positive value insofar as it has the potential to serve as a force of moral inquiry and political engagement.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.5172/hesr.13.2.113
Uncontrolled keywords: sociology, suffering, pain, ethnography, humanitarianism, consciousness
Subjects: H Social Sciences
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
Depositing User: Mita Mondal
Date Deposited: 09 Dec 2013 12:22 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:14 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/37400 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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