What is health? What does health mean to people? How do we make sense of health and experience it?

There are no simple answers to these questions. Health is complex, subjective and varied. Drawing on theory, research and contemporary debates, Ruth Cross explores the nature of health in depth and challenges our thinking about it. Moving beyond taken-for-granted assumptions, she gives the meaning of ‘health’ its due attention, exploring everyday perspectives as well as ‘expert’ medical, academic and policy understandings and approaches. In doing so, the book brings together different knowledge and expertise on health, also considering the inextricable links between human and planetary health.

This book is important for all those working in the health field, or training to do so, seeking a broad understanding about health and all its complexity.

Ruth Cross is Course Director for Health Promotion at Leeds Beckett University.