How is sickness absence influenced by experienced illness, disease, and social context? This book offers new and original perspectives on the current debate. It seeks to understand long-term sickness absence by analyzing basic concepts like illness, disease, and sickness, and by seeing sickness as a relation between individuals and their psycho-social environments. It combines empirical insight with a critical understanding of how individuals experience sickness as a social role. 

The chapters in the book are written by researchers from Norway and Sweden.