Contours of coping: mapping the subject world of long-term illness.

Medical geography has evolved from studying 'dots on maps to embodied subjects'. Involving the acknowledgement of new territories and identities, this has taken place against a backdrop of wider shifts in understanding health and illness. This paper suggests geographers are well placed to develop their existing skills of spatial exploration in order to map out these new territories. Whilst 'the map' has recently suffered from bad press, as a selective, misleading representation, this paper demonstrates it can be resurrected as a less sinister tool to aid our understanding of situated health experiences.