Reimagining (bio) medicalization, pharmaceuticals and genetics : old critiques and new engagements

In recent years medicalization, the process of making something medical, has gained considerable ground and a position in everyday discourse. In this multidisciplinary collection of original essays, the authors expertly consider how issues around medicalization have developed, ways in which it is changing, and the potential shapes it will take in the future. They develop a unique argument that medicalization, biomedicalization, pharmaceuticalization and geneticization are related and co-evolving processes, present throughout the globe. This is an ideal addition to anthropology, sociology and STS courses about medicine and health. In recent years medicalization, the process of making something medical, has gained considerable ground and a position in everyday discourse. In this multidisciplinary collection of original essays, the authors consider how issues around medicalization have developed, ways in which it is changing and the potential shapes it will take in the future. They develop the argument that medicalization, biomedicalization, pharmaceuticalization and geneticization are related and coevolving processes, present throughout the globe Pt. 1. Reimaginings : (bio)medicalization and technoscience in the twenty-first century -- pt. 2. Pharmaceuticals -- pt. 3. Genetics/genomics