Socially Constructed Embodiment: Neurohormonal Connections as Resources for Theorizing about Health Inequalities

Abstract

This paper explores possible linkages between neurohormonal activity, embodied subjectivity, contexts of social inequalities, and health. The focus is on the construction of embodied subjectivity (including its neurohormonal aspects) in contexts of social inequality. To address issues of embodied agency, concepts of ‘bioagency’ and ‘tuning’ are introduced. These are used to theorize about how past experiences with social inequalities might influence an individual's psychobiological reactivity to more recent experiences with inequality. This paper questions the assumptions that ‘positivist’ and ‘interpretist’ approaches are incommensurate and raised the possibility of hybrid methodologies and theorizing. It is concluded that biophysical approaches (including animal studies) can make important contributions to sociological theorizing about health inequalities. These contributions can help link both micro- and macrostructural social contexts, over time, to what have been called ‘perturbations of the organism.’