ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book highlights dying as inter-subjective and that pathways towards the end of life involve multiple and negotiated subject positions. It explains the evolving meanings of dying, and their implications for how we go about dying in modern Western societies. The book focuses on senior specialist doctors' accounts of discussing futility and topicalising dying with their patients. It engages with contestations around dying and terminality, focusing on the enactment of resistance to a 'terminal' diagnosis and the emerging role of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and 'cancer gurus' therein. It focuses toward relations of informal care and the powerful role of the family and non-kin caregivers in the overall cultural production of dying. It illustrates that nursing capital lies within the particular intimate relations they considered themselves entrapped within a medical-nursing hierarchy. It focuses on some intersections of gender identities and the dying process.
