In 2008, Timmermans and Haas called for a ‘sociology of disease’ to develop and challenge the sociology of health and illness. A sociology of disease, they argued, would take seriously the biological and physiological processes of disease in theorising health and illness. Building on two decades of Science and Technology Studies and feminist work on biological actors such as hormones and genes, we propose a ‘cortisol sociology’ to push further at this argument. As a ‘messenger of stress’, cortisol is key to understanding human and non-human health as a biosocial phenomenon. We argue that sociologists should engage with cortisol through critical yet open-minded reading of the relevant science and critical triangulation studies, and by tracking cortisol’s movements from science into public worlds of biosensing and self-monitoring.

中文翻译：

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压力使者：迈向皮质醇社会学

2008 年，蒂默曼斯和哈斯呼吁“疾病社会学”来发展和挑战健康和疾病的社会学。他们认为，疾病社会学将在对健康和疾病进行理论化时认真对待疾病的生物学和生理过程。基于二十年的科学技术研究和女性主义对激素和基因等生物行为者的研究，我们提出了“皮质醇社会学”来进一步推动这一论点。作为“压力的使者”，皮质醇是将人类和非人类健康理解为一种生物社会现象的关键。我们认为，社会学家应该通过对相关科学和批判性三角测量研究进行批判性但思想开放的阅读，并通过跟踪皮质醇从科学到生物传感和自我监控的公共世界的运动来研究皮质醇。