Editorial: Introduction

This issue of the Journal brings together a number of comparative articles on illness, crisis, and loss. This issue illuminates that illness, crisis, and loss are central forces shaping personal biographies and social life across comparative cultures. These international articles draw on qualitative methodologies to tap an understanding of illness and in combination provide a broad yet holistic perspective on the interrelationships of illness, crisis and loss. Each of the articles illustrates how they contribute to social change and how the cultural meanings of illness, crisis and loss are created to make sense of personal experiences in contemporary society. These are important existential issues but also significant additions to debates and discussions on illness, crisis, and loss for practitioners, user groups, and researchers. Engaging with different cultural contexts is essential to see how illness, crisis, and loss is experienced, managed, and researched