To what extent can we consider the sociology of health as a sub-discipline of its mother-discipline?
It is exactly the problem this special issue of the journal try to tackle by the contribution of a series of scholars at the international level who look at it from the specific observatory of their own country or macro-region - UK, Scandinavia, France, Italy, Poland, India and Japan - and of their different cultural traditions and academic history. Their essays offer some cutting-edge insights on old and new issues, such as the problem of the relationship between theory and practice, the definition of the boundaries of the sociology of health, and the ethnocentric nature of most of its
categories, given its origins and roots in the Northern American first and in the European contexts later on.

Guido Giarelli , Ph.D. at the University College London in 1994, has worked for many years in Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Senegal, Eritrea) and in Brasil, USA, Great Britain, Sweden, Serbia, Albania and Lebanon, with a specific interest in comparative health systems and unconventional medicines. He is currently Associate Professor of Sociology at the University "Magna GrÆcia" of Catanzaro (Italy) and board member of the Research Committee 15 (Sociology of Health) of the International Sociological Association (ISA); previously, he was the first President of the Società Italiana di Sociologia della Salute (S.I.S.S.), the first secretary of the Section on Sociology of Health and Medicine of the Associazione Italiana di Sociologia (AIS) and the President of the European Society for Health and Medical Sociology (ESHMS) for the period 2007-2010.
Roberto Vignera is Associate Professor of Sociology at the Department of Analysis of Political, Social and Institutional Processes of the University of Catania. From 2011, he is National Secretary of the AIS (Italian Sociological Association) Section of Sociology of Health and Medicine.