Abstract
Sleep, as the previous two chapters suggest, may well have become increasingly problematised and politicised in recent times. It may also be a vital part of the governance of bodies and the politics of risk, responsibility and blame today. Little, however, has been said so far about the relationship between sleep and broader socio-political issues of inequality, insecurity and injustice, or the way in which sleep, recalling Mills’ (1959) now classic formulation of the sociological imagination, constitutes another missing or lost link perhaps between the private realm of personal troubles and broader public issues of social structure.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Others of course cast these levelling powers of sleep in more derogatory terms. Nabokov (2000), for example, refers to sleep in this egalitarian vein as the ‘most moronic fraternity’ in which we are all reduced to a state of non-sentience (Nabokov, quoted in Hoffman 2009; 29). See also the fictional character Dr Gregory Duden, in Coe’s (1997) novel The House of Sleep, discussed in Chapter 5 of this book, who likens sleep to a disease in need of a cure.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2011 Simon J. Williams
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Williams, S.J. (2011). (In)equality and (In)justice: The Rights and Wrongs of Sleep. In: The Politics of Sleep. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230305373_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230305373_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-230-22367-7
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-30537-3
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)