Medicalization and Biomedicalization Revisited: Technoscience and Transformations of Health, Illness and Biomedicine

Journal title SALUTE E SOCIETÀ
Author/s Adele E. Clarke, Janet K. Shim
Publishing Year 2009 Issue 2009/EN2 Language Italian
Pages 33 P. 209-241 File size 141 KB
DOI 10.3280/SES2009-EN2014
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Medicalization and Biomedicalization Revisited: Technoscience and Transformations of Health, Illness and Biomedicine - In this article, we review the history of medicalization theory and then offer a historicized definition of biomedicalization. We consider the relationships between biomedicalization and other contemporary theorizing, seeking in particular to situate the concept explicitly in relation to recent scholarship on the politics of life itself. We discuss how biomedicalization processes dovetail with such politics of life as they are engaged individually, collectively, and at the level of population, including issues of bioeconomy, biocapital, citizenship and enhancement. We then address and respond to several critiques of biomedicalization theory, that question its "newness", omnipresence, and determinism. In conclusion, we discuss the relations among medicalization, biomedicalization and medical sociology and offer directions for future research.

Keywords: biomedicalization, medicalization, technoscience, health, politics of life, optimization.

Parole chiave: biomedicalizzazione, medicalizzazione, tecnoscienza, salute, politica della vita, ottimizzazione.

  • The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Medical Sociology Bernice A. Pescosolido, Carol A. Boyer, pp.537 (ISBN:9781119633754)

Adele E. Clarke, Janet K. Shim, Medicalization and Biomedicalization Revisited: Technoscience and Transformations of Health, Illness and Biomedicine in "SALUTE E SOCIETÀ" EN2/2009, pp 209-241, DOI: 10.3280/SES2009-EN2014