Abstract

This review examines Recalibrating Stigma: Sociologies of Health and Illness, edited by Thomas, Williams, Spratt and Chandler, situating the collection within ongoing sociological debates that treat stigma as assumed rather than contextually examined. The book is assessed as a significant intervention that reconceptualises stigma as a relational, context‑dependent social process shaped by power, governance, and political economy, rather than as a fixed attribute attached to marginalised groups. Drawing on empirical chapters spanning mental health and racism, disability, addiction, work, HIV and sexuality, and health governance, the review highlights the collection’s capacity to bridge micro‑level lived experiences and macro‑level structural conditions. Particular attention is given to the volume’s critique of reductive anti‑stigma frameworks and its emphasis on the mutability, contestation and governance of stigma across diverse health contexts. Overall, the review argues that Recalibrating Stigma advances a critical, sociologically attentive approach that strengthens theoretical, empirical and political engagements with stigma the discipline of sociology of health and illness.