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Purpose – To reconsider the historical relationship between addiction and obesity, which current literature tends to treat as unrelated until the late twentieth century.

Approach – We describe the forms of sociality and therapeutic discourses manifested in the emerging weight loss group movement from the 1940s until 1970 in cultural and intellectual context, drawing mainly on popular media and medical literature. The histories of these ‘Fatties Anonymous’ groups serve as valuable lens for studying the mutable cultural linkage between drug addiction and obesity that was first forged in the golden age of psychoanalysis.

Findings – We show that medicine began interpreting obesity as addiction around 1940 and that this view achieved dominance in both medical and popular discourse by 1950. The theoretical framing of a psychoanalytical interpretation of obesity in the 1940s, combined with the simultaneous rise to prominence of obesity-related problems in public health and popular stigma around fatness, was translated in the Cold War United States into a popular mutual-aid weight loss movement modelled on Alcoholics Anonymous.

Originality value – Our account challenges the present received view that the stigmatised health conditions of obesity and addiction only came to be related in the late twentieth century. There is notable similarity between the 1950s ‘Fatties Anonymous’ type group and present public health campaigns in fostering the individual's sense of self-control and encouraging self-enterprising improvement. Neither historical and contemporary similarities nor differences should be elided. Further research in this area would be of value to current and future developments in public health.

Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, one of the many techniques used by physicians and psychiatrists to diagnose patients involved external and highly public examination. Typically conducted as a lecture to other medical experts and students, the patient was placed in the center of a round room with onlookers arranged in tiered seating to guarantee an unobstructed view. As the lead physician detailed the list of symptoms, using the patient's body as an illustration, observers witnessed the behavioral signs for themselves and discussed the possible underlying conditions or pathologies. This process of consultation and naming worked to increase the relative reliability among experts and bolster the professional reputations of medicine and psychiatry alike (Conrad & Schneider, 1992; Gillis, 2006; Grob & Horwitz, 2010). As researchers have noted (Aronowitz, 2001; Foucault, 1973), this change from focusing on disparate, idiosyncratic symptoms as expressions of individual illness to a system that recognized disease states comprised of symptom clusters marks a historical turning point in the history of medicine. The shift toward a classification scheme that linked medicine with science and technology bolstered medical authority and the power of physicians. In addition to professional credentials, accumulated knowledge, and institutional legitimacy, the authority of modern medicine both rests on and is expressed by medicine's decisive power to name and categorize through diagnosis (Jutel, 2009). Even as medical prestige has eroded, ceding some of its power to other entities,¹ physicians remain the final arbiter of official medical categories (Pescosolido, 2006), judges of what is, and what is not, a “real” diagnosis. In the diagnostic process, one looks within to reveal the nature of disease from without – empirical observation becomes immutable fact. Of course, as critical perspectives on medicine have long pointed out (Conrad & Schneider, 1992; Zola, 1972), the scientific “fact” of one time and place is the mythology or ignorance of another. Diagnosis, as both category and process (Blaxter, 1978), is infused with all manner of things social, historical, and cultural. This volume explores some of these infusions. In so doing, it aims to clarify and contribute to the emerging sociology of diagnosis – an endeavor first called for by Brown (1990), but more recently revived by Jutel (2009).

This paper aims to challenge the cisnormative and binary assumptions that underpin the management and gender scholarship. Introducing and contextualising the contributions that comprise this special issue, this paper critically reflects on some of the principal developments in management research on trans* and intersex people in the workplace and anticipates what future scholarship in this area might entail.

A critical approach is adopted to interrogate the prevailing cisnormative and binary approach adopted by management and gender scholars.

The key finding is the persistence of cisnormativity and normative gender and sex binarism in academic knowledge production and in society more widely, which appear to have hindered how management and gender scholars have routinely failed to conceptualise and foreground the array of diverse genders and sexes.

This paper foregrounds the workplace experiences of trans* and intersex people, which have been neglected by management researchers. By positioning intersexuality as an important topic of management research, this paper breaks the silence that has enwrapped intersex issues in gender and management scholarship. There are still unanswered questions and issues that demand future research from academics who are interested in addressing cisnormativity in the workplace and problematising the sex and gender binaries that sustain it.

Investigates the differences in protocols between arbitral tribunals and courts, with particular emphasis on US, Greek and English law. Gives examples of each country and its way of using the law in specific circumstances, and shows the variations therein. Sums up that arbitration is much the better way to gok as it avoids delays and expenses, plus the vexation/frustration of normal litigation. Concludes that the US and Greek constitutions and common law tradition in England appear to allow involved parties to choose their own judge, who can thus be an arbitrator. Discusses e‐commerce and speculates on this for the future.

In this chapter, I analyze how the intersection of geographic and social locations shapes ethnographic relationships in urban areas. While early urban ethnographers were acutely aware of the importance of geographic location, I argue that researchers’ social locations were ignored, obscuring how their bodies and social identities lead to different forms of knowledge about the metropolis. I use data from a two-year ethnographic research project conducted in Caracas, Venezuela as well as interviews conducted with women qualitative researchers to consider gendered dynamics of fieldwork experiences and data collection. Using a framework of embodied ethnography, which posits that all ethnographic knowledge is shaped by researchers’ bodies, I argue that men and women confront similar but distinct challenges while conducting fieldwork, and discuss what this means for data collection in cities. Specifically, I focus on how social control mechanisms, the gendered meanings attached to researchers’ bodies, and geographic barriers in urban areas can facilitate and restrict fieldwork. Critiquing hegemonic standards within ethnography that encourage researchers to leave their bodies out of their tales of the field, I advocate for the incorporation of gendered research experiences in our ethnographic writing with the aim of producing more complete narratives, but also to better prepare future ethnographers for fieldwork.

The purpose of this paper is to determine which factors impact body image satisfaction of Generation Y college age and young professional females born between the years of 1980 and 1993, age 20-33 years in the State of Texas.

An online survey created in Qualtrics was e-mailed to recruit research participants. Quantitative data were collected and analyzed in IBM SPSS Statistics 21. Exploratory factor analysis, reliability, computing variable mean, and linear multiple regression were performed. The variables explored were divided and grouped into major factors.

Millennial females are influenced by their own personal preferences, morals and beliefs, and certain occasions, seasons, climate, and the weather. These factors significantly influence body image satisfaction. The model developed in this study provides researchers with a new perspective on body image satisfaction and purchase intent. This study extends the theory of reasoned action by identifying specific factors which influence body image satisfaction which leads to the final purchase decision.

Because of this method of data collection the study might not be generalizable to the entire Millennial population. The sample is a small representative sample in the population with only Millennial females’ ages 20-33 years in the State of Texas. Although the study focussed on a single state, the state is an extremely large state encompassing 36 percent of the USA population. Additionally, race/ethnic diversity was also a limitation, as the majority of the sample was Caucasian. Thus, a larger and more diverse sample of age, race/ethnicity, and residence could be added for more generalizable results.

The findings of this study enable retailers to understand how body image can impact the customers perceptions of their stores and their employees. Marketers and retailers should focus on marketing to Millennial females through more personal approach targeting what is appropriate for the consumers size body type labeled clothing size and certain occasions.

Confidence in decision making while purchasing apparel is an important aspect of shopping. Further research could benefit from focussing on determining the confidence drivers and their origins.

This study enhances literature by providing a glimpse into the minds of Generation Y female consumers’ body image satisfaction and the factors driving them to purchase apparel.