This edited collection explores different strands of social constructionist theory and methods to provide a critique of the prevailing discourse of work stress, and introduces a radical new approach to conceptualizing suffering at work. Over the last three decades, stress and other forms of suffering at work (including burn-out, bullying, and issues relating to work-life balance) have emerged as important social and medical problems in Western countries. However, stress is a contested category, not (as many argue) a well-defined clinical, biological and psychological state that affects people in the same way in different cultures and at different times. Thus, a social constructionist perspective helps to shed light on new approaches to prevention and interventions of work stress. This book will be of great interest for students and scholars of sociology, anthropology, social history, history of science, psychology, communication and management, as well as to practitioners (doctors and psychologists), policy makers and employers.

1. Introduction: What Does the Social Construction of Stress Mean?' Marc Loriol.- 2. "Elective Affinities" and Development of "Normal Science": What Kind of Regulation? The Example of Hans Selye (1907-1981); Guillame Lecoeur.- 3. Epidemiological Transition and the Emergence of Mental Discomfort: The Case of Work Stress; Ari Väänänen and Pekka Varje.- 4. How Much Do You Suffer?: The Performativity of Scientific Scales of Work-Related Suffering; Florence Allard-Poesi and Sandrine Hollet-Haudebert..- 5. The Discourse of Stress: Individual Pathology or Communal Ritual; Sheila McNamee. -6. The Different Dimensions of the Social Construction Process; Marc Loriol.- 7. The Problem of Work Stress and the Need to Re-imagine the Bio-Psycho-Social Model; David Wainwright and Elaine Wainwright.- 8. Understanding Stress as a Form of Institutional Maintenance and Disruption Work; Penny Dick.- 9. Burnout in Quebec: Behind Psychological Suffering, Shifting in Social Representation and Relation to Work.- 10. General Conclusion; Marc Loriol.