Chronic Health Conditions and Bodies: Methods, Meanings, and Medicine

Dear Colleagues,

As the global prevalence and awareness of chronic health conditions grows, it is imperative that social science remains central to understanding the emergence, experience, and social impact of these conditions. This Special Issue follows in the tradition of Zola (1976), Charmaz (1993), and other existing social science scholarship on disability, sociology of health, and sociology of the body that focuses on chronic health issues to contextualize these conditions beyond the arena of biomedicine.

This Special Issue focuses on emerging research that utilizes social science perspectives on chronic health conditions. Critically important to the social scientific study of chronic health conditions is the centering of structural factors, including but not limited to race, class, gender, sexual orientation, immigration status, and body size. Potential topics for this Special Issue include chronic pain, chronic illness, long COVID, mental health, medicalization, diagnostic categories, media, technology, patient advocacy and activism, and other issues related to chronic health conditions. Contributions can include empirical work, theoretical pieces, extended literature reviews, methodology papers, or book reviews related to chronic health conditions from a social science perspective. We especially welcome papers from the Global South or articles that focus on the experiences of chronic health conditions for structurally marginalized populations.

Please submit your extended abstract to Special Issue editors, Dr. Natalie Ingraham (ingrahn@farmingdale.edu) and Dr. Natalie C. Boero (natalie.boero@sjsu.edu), by 1 February 2024. For those accepted for consideration, the deadline for full paper submission will be 31 March 2024 for preliminary review.

Dr. Natalie C. Boero
Dr. Natalie Ingraham
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Social Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.