Manchester University Press

Beautyscapes explores the global phenomenon of international medical travel, focusing on patient-consumers seeking cosmetic surgery outside their home country and on those who enable them to access treatment abroad, including surgeons and facilitators. It documents the journeys of those who travel for treatment abroad, as well as the nature and power relations of the IMT industry. Empirically rich and theoretically sophisticated, Beautyscapes draws on key themes of interest to students and researchers interested in globalisation and mobility to explain the nature and growing popularity of cosmetic surgery tourism. Richly illustrated with ethnographic material and with the voices of those directly involved in cosmetic surgery tourism, Beautyscapes explores cosmetic surgery journeys from Australia and China to East-Asia and from the UK to Europe and North Africa.

Reviews

'Perhaps most importantly, this book is a good read. The characters are bright and affecting. Contradictions are brought to the fore and left unresolved, leaving the reader space to draw their own interpretations. It speaks particularly to the interests of scholars and students from sociology, STS, critical geography and anthropology, but will be useful to anyone who is curious about examining how global networks of practice form and hold together.'
Sociology of Health & Illness

Awards

2020 Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness Book Prize

1 Clinical trails: researching cosmetic surgery tourism
2 Cosmetic investments
3 Locating cosmetic surgery tourism
4 The work of cosmetic surgery tourism I: care-giving companions and medical travel facilitators
5 The work of cosmetic surgery tourism II: health workers and patients
6 Community and little narratives
7 Decentring and disorienting cosmetic surgery tourism
8 Cosmetic convivialities and cosmopolitan beginnings
9 Conclusions
Index

Authors

Ruth Holliday is Professor of Gender and Culture at the University of Leeds
Meredith Jones is Reader in Gender and Media Studies, and Director of the Research Centre for Global Lives at Brunel University London
David Bell is Professor of Cultural Geography at the University of Leeds