SCSO1550D: Biomedicalization: The Body as a Social Problem
TR 9:00-10:20AM
JWW 401
Prof. Catherine Bliss
Email: Catherine_Bliss@brown.edu
Office: B8 Churchill
Office Hours: Weds 1-3pm
Course Description:
Why are more and more aspects of daily life seen as biomedical problems? What are the
social processes and political effects that motivate people to view the body this way? This
course explores how contemporary health and behavior conditions are being defined and
treated by analyzing biomedical research, health, and bodily knowledge in its various
institutional formations: governmental knowledge, health policy, capital markets, and
popular culture. Prerequisites for the course are either one course in medical sociology or
anthropology (e.g. Culture and Health) or one in science studies (e.g. Introduction to
Science and Society).
Course Requirements:
Participation
20%
You are permitted 2 excused absences thereafter, you grade goes down one letter. This
class and the learning you will be doing is participation and dialogue-based; I limited the
enrollment so we can talk openly. I’m looking for thoughtful contributions that refer
directly to the readings at hand. You will also be required to write a one-page summary
of the readings each week and post it on our MyCourses page. See MyCourses for weekly
report writing instructions.
Presentations
10%
You will have one in-class presentation on the readings. Select one set of readings that
you are interested in using toward your final. Prepare a ten-minute summary of the
articles’ main points and present any supporting material you think will help your
classmates better understand the readings. Post your powerpoints on MyCourses.
Midterm
30%
The midterm is a 10pp theoretical exploration of biomedicalization. Argue your own take
on biomedicalization using three or more course readings. Ask yourself:
1) How does biomedicalization resonate with my understanding of contemporary
society?
2) What are the elements or driving forces of the social processes I see today?
3) Are there some readings that describe the current condition well?
4) Are there any debates or conceptual impasses that inspire me to think critically
about these issues?
This is not a descriptive report of three sources, but rather a strategic deployment of
sources to support your own understanding of the world we live in. As such, you can
point out any misgivings you have about the theories we’ve encountered, but you should
show that you understand the basic building block concepts that inform this discourse.
This will help you for the final paper, where you will have to investigate a case that is
undergoing some form of biomedicalization and describe this process using the concepts
and theories we’ve learned throughout the semester.
See MyCourses for further instructions and writing tips. Chicago or ASA citation form is
required. See http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html;
http://www.uwp.edu/departments/library/guides/asa.htm.
Final Paper/Prospectus
40%
A prospectus is due the week following the midterm. The prospectus consists of:
 A one paragraph summary of the final paper
 An outline of its contents (bullet-pointed keywords are sufficient)
 An annotated bibliography (the references list and one sentence describing each
source’s relevance)
The final is a 20pp case study of biomedicalization. There are two kinds of approaches
you might take to your case study. You may choose to focus on a past set of behaviors
that are presently understood as a disease category or you may study a set of behaviors
undergoing redefinition in the biomedical realm. In both cases, you will draw on readings
that express your understanding of what biomedicalization is all about and what its social
significance is. You will also use publications in the major news media and medical
literature to portray the process of biomedicalization. Be creative with your source
material. Pharmaceutical journals, business wires, and biotech digests are just a few
examples of where you can find supporting evidence for your case. Annual review
articles are the quickest way to find background information and an instant bibliography
on any topic. Remember that a critical analysis need not be cynical or negative. As long
as you can justify your position vis-à-vis our class readings and discussions, you are
welcome to either find fault with your case’s biomedicalization and/or focus on why it’s
good or successful. See MyCourses for structural suggestions for the final.
Required Articles: (see below)
Course Schedule:
Jan 28: Introductions
Carey, Benedict. 2009. “Childhood: Autism Diagnoses Rising, U.S. Reports.”
New York Times Oct 6.
Lister, Sam. 2009. “Male, white-collar, in mid-30s - NHS gambling centre reveals
typical addict.” Times Oct 5.
Feb 2: Biomedical Cases
Science. Nov 7, 2008 issue.
Feb 4: Biomedical Cases
Nature. Oct 16, 2008 issue.
Feb 9: Biomedicalization
Adele E. Clarke, Janet Shim, Laura Mamo, Jennifer Fosket, and Jennifer
Fishman. 2009. Biomedicalization: Technoscience and Transformations of Health
and Illness in the U.S. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Introduction.
Feb 11: Biopolitics
Foucault, Michel. 1978. “Right of Death and Power Over Life.” History of
Sexuality, v1. New York: Random House.134-160.
Rabinow, Paul and Nikolas Rose. 2003. “The Birth of Social Medicine” and “The
Politics of Health in the 18th Century” in The Essential Foucault: Selections from
the Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984. New Press: NY.
Sujatha Raman and Richard Tutton. 2009. “Life, Science, and Biopower.”
Science, Technology, & Human Values 1-24.
Feb 16: Biopolitical Paradigms
Epstein, Steven. 2007. “How to Study a Biopolitical Paradigm” “Histories of the
Human Subject,” and “The Rise of Resistance.” Inclusion: The Politics of
Difference in Medical Research. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Pp.
17-73.
Feb 18: Somatization
Rose, Nikolas. 2007. “Molecular Biopolitics, Somatic Ethics and the Spirit of
Biocapital.” Social Theory & Health 5:3-29.
Feb 25: Biocapital
Sunder Rajan, Kaushik. 2005. “Subjects of Speculation: Emergent Life Sciences
and Market Logics in the United States and India.” American Anthropologist.
107:19-30.
Waldby, Catherine. 2002. “Stem Cells, Tissue Cultures and the Production of
Biovalue.” Health: an Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health,
Illness and Medicine 6: 305-323.
Mar 2: Medicalization
Conrad, Peter. 2007. The Medicalization of Society: On the Transformation of
Human Conditions into Medical Disorders. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins
University Press. Chapter Seven. Pp. 133-164.
Mar 4: Medicalization and Social Control
Lock, Margaret. 2004. “Medicalization and the Naturalization of Social Control.”
In The Encyclopedia of Medical Anthropology. Eds. Carolyn R. Ember and
Melvin Ember. New York: Klower Academic. Pp. 116-126.
Mar 9: Governance and Borders
Comaroff, Jean. 2007. “Beyond Bare Life: AIDS, (Bio)Politics, and the NeoLiberal Order.” Public Culture 19:197-219.
Benjamin, Ruha. 2009. “A Lab of Their Own: Genomic Sovereignty as
Postcolonial Science Policy.” Policy & Society 28:341-355.
Mar 11: Subjectivity and Illness
Biehl, Joao and Amy Moran-Thomas. 2009. “Symptom: Subjectivities, Social Ills,
Technologies.” Annual Review of Anthropology 38: 267-288.
MIDTERM DUE
Mar 16: Biomedicalization of Sexuality
Esptein, Steven. 2003. “Sexualizing Governance and Medicalizing Identities:
The Emergence of ‘State-Centered’ LGBT Health Politics in the
United States.” Sexualities 6: 131–171.
Mar 18: Biomedicalization of Gender
Mamo, Laura and Jennifer Ruth Fosket. 2009. Scripting the Body:
Pharmaceuticals and the (Re)Making of Menstruation.” Signs 34:925-949.
PROSPECTUS DUE
Mar 23: Biomedicalization of Race
Fullwiley, Duana. 2008. “The Biologistical Construction of Race: `Admixture'
Technology and the New Genetic Medicine” Social Studies of Science 38:695707.
Mar 25: Geneticization
Hubbard, Ruth and Elijah Wald. 2009. “Of Genes and People.” Exploding the
gene myth: how genetic information is produced and manipulated. Boston, MA:
Beacon Press. Pp.1-12.
Nelkin, Dorothy and M. Susan Lindee. 2004. “The Powers of the Gene” and “The
Eugenic Gene.” DNA Mystique. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Pp. 1-37.
April 6: Informatic Systematization
Duster, Troy. 2004. “Selective Arrests, an Ever-Expanding DNA Forensic
Database, and the Specter of an Early Twenty-First Century Equivalent of
Phrenology.” In DNA and the Criminal Justice System: The Technology of
Justice. Ed. David Lazer. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
April 8: Informatic Inequality
Prainsack, Barbara. 2008. “What are the Stakes? Genetic Nondiscrimination
Legislation and Personal Genomics.” Future Medicine 5:415-8.
Reardon, Jenny et al. 2008. “Misdirected precaution.” Nature 456:34-5.
April 13: Pharmaceutical Markets
Petryna, Adriana. 2009. “Ethical Variability.” When Experiments Travel: Clinical
Trials and the Global Search for Human. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press. Pp. 10-46.
Whitmarsh, Ian. 2008. “(Re)categorizing Asthma and the Rational
Pharmaceutical.” Biomedical Ambiguity. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Pp. 69-97.
April 15: Prescriptions and Classifications
Vallee, Manuel. “The Pharmaceuticalization of Childhood: Accounting for
Differences in French and American Ritalin Usage.” Doctoral Dissertation
University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA. Chapters Two and Eight.
April 20: Neuroscience
Rose, Nikolas. 2007. “Neurochemical Selves.” The Politics of Life Itself.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Pp. 187-223.
April 22: Behavior
Hubbard, Ruth and Elijah Wald. 2009. “‘Inherited Tendencies’: Behaviors.”
Exploding the gene myth: how genetic information is produced and
manipulated. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Pp. 93-107.
Bumiller, Kristin. 2009. “The Geneticization of Autism: From New Reproductive
Technologies to the Conception of Genetic Normalcy.” Signs 34:875-99.
April 27: Biosociality
Rabinow, Paul. 2004. “Artificiality and Enlightenment. From Sociobiology to
Biosociality.” The Science Studies Reader. Ed. Mario Biagioli. New York:
Routledge. Pp. 234-252.
April 29: Biosociality
Nelson, Alondra. 2008. “Bio Science: Genetic Genealogy Testing and the Pursuit
of African Ancestry.” Social Studies of Science 38:759-783.
Hacking, Ian. 2005. “Genetics, biosocial groups & the future of identity.”
Daedalus Fall:81-95.
May 13: FINAL DUE