Language and Health in Action / ǂc Edited by Lynnette Arnold, Jennifer R. Guzmaʹn, Emily Avera, Anna I. Corwin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Arnold, Lynnette.

Contributor:

Arnold, Lynnette, editor.

Guzmán, Jennifer R., editor.

Avera, Emily, editor.

Corwin, Anna I., editor.

Oxford University Press.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Communication in medicine.

Communication in public health.

Medical anthroplogy.

Medical personnel and patient.

Sick--Language.

Sick.

Physician-Patient Relations.

Anthropology, Medical.

Communication.

Language.

Medical Subjects:

Physician-Patient Relations.

Anthropology, Medical.

Communication.

Language.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, Incorporated, [2026]

System Details:

datafile html

datafile pdf

text file html

text file pdf

Summary:

Health and wellbeing are profoundly shaped by communication processes. Language and Health in Action explores these interconnections by bringing together cutting-edge global scholarship from linguistic and medical anthropology. The book highlights the centrality of language practices and language ideologies in how professionals, individuals, families, and communities navigate illness and pursue health across the lifecourse, in clinical contexts, and beyond. Each chapter includes immersive examples from qualitative and ethnographic research, captured in clear and accessible prose. The volume includes a breadth of perspectives on public and global health that include topics such as infectious disease and chronic illness, mental health and addiction, disability, dying, and healing. Contributions shed light on urban and rural settings and the experiences of immigrants, indigenous communities, and other racialized populations. Chapters profile research conducted in Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, South Korea, Mexico, South Africa, Tanzania, and the United States. The book is organized into five thematic sections: clinical interaction, language access, community and communicability, language and environment, and healing practices. To support student readers and instructors, the book begins with an introduction to key terms in social scientific approaches to language and health, and each chapter includes a series of discussion and reflection questions. The volume demonstrates that linguistic and communicative practices, which are often taken for granted, nevertheless have far-reaching consequences for health outcomes. -- Publisher

Contents:

Foreword: Beyond Linguistic and Medical Anthropology Divides: The Emergence of Critical Synthetic Perspectives

Key Concepts in Language and Health

Section 1 Clinical Interaction: Editors’ Introduction: Everyone is “Mom”: Speaking Maternalism in US Emergency Departments

Talking about Pain in Traditional Korean Medicine Clinics

Autism Diagnostics as White Public Space in US Clinics

Section 2 Language Access: Editors’ Introduction: Health Care Access for Mayan Communities in Kansas

Of Worlds and Words: Medical Interpretation in a US Primary Care Clinic

Translating the Invisible: Intercultural Health Facilitators in Indigenous Chile

Section 3 Community and Communicability: Editors’ Introduction: Kansa, Saratani, and Biocommunicability in Coastal Tanzania

The Circulation of Psychoanalytic Discourses Beyond the Clinic in Buenos Aires

Facing HIV Stigma with Scientific Medicine in a Bio-Speech Community in South Africa

Section 4 Language and Environment: Editors’ Introduction: “I’m still here!”: Listening to African American Silences and Narratives of Life on Dialysis in Boston

Water Everywhere, but Is It Safe to Drink? Risk, Perception, and Public Health in Guatemala

Introducing Xka Pastora, One of the World’s Newest “Drugs”

Section 5 Healing Practices: Editors’ Introduction: In the Spirit, in the Flesh: Performative Language, Embodiment, and Sustaining Recovery in Appalachia

Caught between Stories of Healing and Migration: Rehabilitation Care for Migrants with Amputations in Mexico

Learning to Experience Dying as a Part of Living: An Individual and Collective Journey

Afterword: The Case for Narrative Competence in the Clinic and Beyond

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Also issued print: Language and Health in Action

ISBN:

9780198933953

0198933959

9780198933922 (softcover)

0198933924 (softcover)

9780198933915 (hardcover)

0198933916 (hardcover)

OCLC:

1570869202