Rethinking the sociology of stigma
2018/06/12 by Imogen Tyler, Tom Slater · 582 citations
Health Professions · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Aesthetics #Conceptual framework #Criminology #Employment and Welfare Studies #Epistemology #Gender studies #Identity (music) #Law #Mental Health Treatment and Access #Phenomenon #Political science #Politics #Psychiatry #Psychology #Social Policy and Reform Studies #Social psychology #Social science #Sociology #Stigma (botany)
paper · open access · doi:10.1177/0038026118777425
published in The Sociological Review 66(4), 721-743 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2018/06/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Abstract
Stigma is not a self-evident phenomenon but like all concepts has a history. The conceptual understanding of stigma which underpins most sociological research has its roots in the ground-breaking account penned by Erving Goffman in his best-selling book Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity (1963). In the 50 years since its publication, Goffman’s account of stigma has proved a productive concept, in terms of furthering research on social stigma and its effects, on widening public understandings of stigma, and in the development of anti-stigma campaigns. However, this introductory article argues that the conceptual understanding of stigma inherited from Goffman, along with the use of micro-sociological and/or psychological research methods in stigma research, often side-lines questions about where stigma is produced, by whom and for what purposes. As Simon Parker and Robert Aggleton argue, what is frequently missing is social and political questions, such as ‘how stigma is used by individuals, communities and the state to produce and reproduce social inequality’. This article expands on Parker and Aggleton’s critique of the limitations of existing conceptual understandings of stigma, through an examination of the anti-stigma campaign Heads Together. This high-profile campaign launched in 2016 seeks to ‘end the stigma around mental health’ and is fronted by members of the British Royal Family. By thinking critically with and about this campaign, this article seeks to both delineate the limitations of existing conceptual understandings of stigma and to begin to develop a supplementary account of how stigma functions as a form of power. We argue that in order to grasp the role and function of stigma in society, scholarship must develop a richer and fuller understanding of stigma as a cultural and political economy. The final part of this introduction details the articles to follow, and the contribution they collectively make to the project of rethinking the sociology of stigma. This collection has been specifically motivated by: (1) how reconceptualising stigma might assist in developing better understandings of pressing contemporary problems of social decomposition, inequality and injustice; (2) a concern to decolonise the discipline of sociology by interrogating its major theorists and concepts; and (3) a desire to put class struggle and racism at the centre of understandings of stigma as a classificatory form of power.
Cited by
- Responses to Welfare Stigma in the Netherlands: The Importance of Developing a Non-stigmatised Identity
- The Stigmatized Homeowner: Variegated Debt Moralities, Credit-Score Governance, and the Making of UK Mortgage Prisoners
- Nation of heroes: state stigmatisation of Ukrainian men who flee the war
- Vulnerable, Helpless, and Hopeless: Representations of Youth Who Use Drugs in Canadian Substance Use‐Focused Anti‐Stigma Campaigns (2009–2020)
- Health‐Related Stigma: The Affordances of Electronic Health Management Systems in the Production of Structural Stigma
- Advancing health equity through cross-cutting approaches to health-related stigma. [europepmc]
- Pathogens and Immigrants: A Critical Appraisal of the Behavioral Immune System as an Explanation of Prejudice Against Ethnic Outgroups. [europepmc]
- Does weight-related stigmatisation and discrimination depend on educational attainment and level of income? A systematic review. [europepmc]
- Social Implications of Weight Bias Internalisation: Parents' Ultimate Responsibility as Consent, Social Division and Resistance. [europepmc]
- Perceptions and experiences of stigma among parents of children with developmental disorders in Ethiopia: A qualitative study. [europepmc]
- My neighborhood has a good reputation: Associations between spatial stigma and health. [europepmc]
- "There Is So Much More for Us to Lose If We Were to Kill Ourselves": Understanding Paradoxically Low Rates of Self-Harm in a Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Community in London. [europepmc]
- Suicide, Stigma and COVID-19: A Call for Action From Low and Middle Income Countries. [europepmc]
- 'Maybe I Shouldn't Talk': The Role of Power in the Telling of Mental Health Recovery Stories. [europepmc]
- Philosophy and the clinic: Stigma, respect and shame. [europepmc]
- Mental illness stigma and employer evaluation in hiring: Stereotypes, discrimination and the role of experience. [europepmc]
- 'He was a brilliant student but became mad like his grandfather': an exploratory investigation on the social perception and stigma against individuals living with mental health problems in Bangladesh. [europepmc]
- Status of stigma on the health care workers related to COVID-19 at the first wave of the pandemic in Iran: A qualitative study. [europepmc]
- The "goldfish bowl": a qualitative study of the effects of heightened surveillance on people who use drugs in a rural and coastal Canadian setting. [europepmc]
- Stigma, mental illness & ethnicity: Time to centre racism and structural stigma. [europepmc]
- The trouble with vulnerability. Narrating ageing during the COVID-19 pandemic. [europepmc]
- "I am not a junkie": Social categorization and differentiation among people who use drugs. [europepmc]
- Working Through Stigma: A Constructivist Grounded Theory of Delivering Health Services to Diverse 2SLGBTQ Populations. [europepmc]
- Weight stigma, welfare stigma, and political values: Evidence from a representative British survey. [europepmc]
- The Social Construction of Dementia: Implications for Healthcare Experiences of Caregivers and People Living with Dementia. [europepmc]
- Abortion stigma among abortion seekers, healthcare professionals and the public in high-income countries: A mixed-methods systematic review protocol. [europepmc]
- Gender and stigma in antiretroviral treatment adherence in Mozambique: A qualitative study. [europepmc]
- An evolutionary concept analysis: stigma among women living with hepatitis C. [europepmc]
- Current Status of HIV-Stigma Reduction Interventions: A Need to Address the Root Causes at Multiple Levels. [europepmc]
- What Do We Know About Interventions to Reduce Intersectional Stigma and Discrimination in the Context of HIV? A Systematic Review. [europepmc]
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