ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book addresses how the social and economic processes are changing both work and the health of working populations. It focuses on the detrimental health effects experienced by working people in industrialized countries, particularly in the United States, albeit with the aim that this knowledge can be applied in developing countries as well. The book aims to translate and demystify those languages so that non-experts and researchers can better communicate and learn from each other. It also focuses on stress as a fundamental pathway between the social world and the body. The book presents a social approach to occupational health, one that focuses on unhealthy workplace practices and their health, human, and economic costs to workers and employers alike. It examines both problems and solutions related to noxious work environments and their health impacts.
