Unrivalled in its clarity and coverage, this sparkling new edition of Chris Shilling's classic text is a masterful account of the emergence and development of body matters in sociology and related disciplines. A timely, well reasoned response to current concerns and controversies across the globe, the Third Edition of The Body and Social Theory has been revised and updated, with new discussions of 'action network theory', bodywork, pragmatism, the global resurgence of religious identities, 'new genetics', biological citizenship, and figurations of the living and dead.