Biomedicalization: Technoscience, Health, and Illness in the U.S.

by Adele E. Clarke (Editor), Laura Mamo (Editor), Jennifer Ruth Fosket (Editor)

The rise of Western scientific medicine fully established the medical sector of the U.S. political economy by the end of the Second World War, the first “social transformation of American medicine.” Then, in an ongoing process called medicalization, the jurisdiction of medicine began expanding, redefining certain areas once deemed moral, social, or legal problems (such as alcoholism, drug addiction, and obesity) as medical problems. The editors of this important collection argue that since the mid-1980s, dramatic, and especially technoscientific, changes in the constitution, organization, and practices of contemporary biomedicine have coalesced into biomedicalization, the second major transformation of American medicine. This volume offers in-depth analyses and case studies along with the groundbreaking essay in which the editors first elaborated their theory of biomedicalization. Contributors . Natalie Boero, Adele E. Clarke, Jennifer R. Fishman, Jennifer Ruth Fosket, Kelly Joyce, Jonathan Kahn, Laura Mamo, Jackie Orr, Elianne Riska, Janet K. Shim, Sara Shostak

Genres: Anthropology, Academic, Sociology

512 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Michael Burnam-Fink · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is like a brick-a dozen or so papers assembled by Adele Clarke and her old sociology reading group to explain and describe biomedicalization as a tool for theoretical critique. As a positive, if I were teaching a graduate seminar on the topic I might just assign this book. As a negative, two days after reading it, I can't even remember what biomedicalization is clearly enough to explain it to you.

Sometimes things are too subtly.

[Raheleh Abbasinejad · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read chapters 1,7,12. They present a very thorough explanation of how dramatic thechnoscientific shifts in the US has transformed the practice of Medicine since 1985, and how we need a new theory called "Boomedicalizarion," rather than medicalization, enabling us to analyze social implications of medical jurisdiction in this era. The other chapters were several empirical studies applying the concept of biomedicalization in their researches. They were really fun to read and I really enjoyed the way they used interviews, historical reviews, and so forth in their applications. They helped me to better digest the concept of biomedicalization. Though I partly agree with the changes in the profession of medicine, I highly believe that the concept of medicalization still works for the authors' arguments. The new concept is also a bit embedded in a specific time and location (US) that makes it less useful to apply. Despite my critics, its comprehensive study challenged my STS mind a lot.

[Mills College Library]

610.284 B6159 2010

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Theoretically interesting but at times too jargon-y.