Societies

Editorial

4 pages, 210 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Old and New Actors and Phenomena in the Three-M Processes of Life and Society: Medicalization, Moralization and Misinformation

by Violeta Alarcão and Sónia Pintassilgo

Societies 2023, 13(1), 17; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc13010017 - 12 Jan 2023

Viewed by 1850

Abstract

Medicalization has been a key concept in the field of the sociology of health and illness over the past 50 years, capturing the expanding social control of everyday life by medical experts [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Old and New Actors and Phenomena in the Three-M Processes of Life and Society: Medicalization, Moralization and Misinformation)

Research

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16 pages, 308 KiB

Open AccessArticle

“Not Storing the Samples It’s Certainly Not a Good Service for Patients”: Constructing the Biobank as a Health Place

by Brígida Riso

Societies 2022, 12(4), 113; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc12040113 - 6 Aug 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1883

Abstract

Biobanks have been established from the beginning of the millennium as relevant infrastructures to support biomedical research. These repositories have also transformed the paradigm of collecting and storing samples and associated clinical data, moving these practices from the healthcare services and research laboratories [...] Read more.

Biobanks have been established from the beginning of the millennium as relevant infrastructures to support biomedical research. These repositories have also transformed the paradigm of collecting and storing samples and associated clinical data, moving these practices from the healthcare services and research laboratories to dedicated services. In Portugal, the establishment of biobanks is happening in the absence of a specific legal framework, turning it difficult to fully understand the scope of their action. This ethnographic research explored how establishing a biobank challenges the dynamics between healthcare and biomedical research. The ethnography intended to follow the path of biological samples from the hospital, where they were collected, to the biobank in a research institute, where they were stored. Findings suggest that although the nature of the biobank’s technical work seemed to inscribe it as a research-oriented setting, the biobank’s daily work was performed through symbolic action in the logic of care. Biobank staff constantly recalled the human nature of the samples, and they built complex illness narratives of each sample, promoting a connection with the absent donor. These practices were crucial to constructing the biobank as a health place, one that was designed to be life-saving in the near future. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Old and New Actors and Phenomena in the Three-M Processes of Life and Society: Medicalization, Moralization and Misinformation)

15 pages, 319 KiB

Open AccessArticle

“Mix of Races, Bad Uterus”: Obstetric Violence in the Experiences of Afro-Brazilian Migrants in Portugal

by Catarina Barata

Societies 2022, 12(3), 78; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc12030078 - 6 May 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3768

Abstract

In this article, I address the issues of obstetric violence and racism in the Portuguese setting of obstetric care. Based on data collected through interviews and participatory artistic creation, I analyze the perception of three Afro-Brazilian migrants about their perinatal experiences of obstetric [...] Read more.

In this article, I address the issues of obstetric violence and racism in the Portuguese setting of obstetric care. Based on data collected through interviews and participatory artistic creation, I analyze the perception of three Afro-Brazilian migrants about their perinatal experiences of obstetric care in the Portuguese public sector between 2013 and 2019. These women’s experiences have much in common with experiences of obstetric violence as narrated by Portuguese, non-racialized women. Despite this, certain aspects of their experience are related to their particular identification as Brazilian, migrant, and Black, such as xenophobic discrimination and their placement in systems of stratified reproduction, including a supposed tendency for birth by caesarean section, as well as self-policing behaviors because of the stereotype of Brazilian women as flirty. I consider a range of manifestations of obstetric violence and racism, from more overt forms to more covert ones, to analyze how, in a country where racism and obstetric violence are only slowly beginning to be recognized as the norm, multiple discriminations intersect and have an impact on the experiences of women of their bodies in pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, including breastfeeding. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Old and New Actors and Phenomena in the Three-M Processes of Life and Society: Medicalization, Moralization and Misinformation)

20 pages, 324 KiB

Open AccessArticle

‘Focusing and Unfocusing’—Cognitive, Evaluative, and Emotional Dynamics in the Relationship with Human Embryos among ART Beneficiaries

by Luís Gouveia and Catarina Delaunay

Societies 2022, 12(1), 7; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc12010007 - 5 Jan 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2216

Abstract

This article uses data gathered from a study conducted in Portugal to examine the (plural and composite) conceptions that doctors, embryologists, and beneficiaries of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) have of the in vitro human embryo. Taking the sociology of engagements, developed by [...] Read more.

This article uses data gathered from a study conducted in Portugal to examine the (plural and composite) conceptions that doctors, embryologists, and beneficiaries of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) have of the in vitro human embryo. Taking the sociology of engagements, developed by Thévenot, as its theoretical lens, the article draws on a total of 69 interviews with ART patients to analyse the plurality of fluid meanings produced about this biological entity, whose status is neither static nor universal. ART beneficiaries are likely to produce plural conceptions of the lab-generated embryo within the framework of different regimes of engagement, understood as cognitive and evaluative formats. These various pragmatic regimes, in turn, entail distinct emotional investments. When speaking about their relationship with embryos, beneficiaries therefore express plural emotional experiences, which are articulated using terms such as affection, love, detachment, loss, frustration, hope, mourning, and anguish. Using the theoretical framework of the sociology of engagements, we propose an approach that enables us to produce a detailed record of the connections between the cognitive, evaluative, and emotional dimensions in beneficiaries’ relationship with—and decision-making processes about—the embryos, accounting for the plasticity of emotional states linked to the (re)configuration of attributed meanings. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Old and New Actors and Phenomena in the Three-M Processes of Life and Society: Medicalization, Moralization and Misinformation)

16 pages, 265 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Because You’re Worth It! The Medicalization and Moralization of Aesthetics in Aging Women

by Chiara Pussetti

Societies 2021, 11(3), 97; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc11030097 - 12 Aug 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 5184

Abstract

In this article—based on the fieldwork I conducted in Lisbon (Portugal) between 2018 and 2021, employing in-depth ethnography and self-ethnography—I describe the experience of the medicalization and moralization of beauty in Portuguese women aged 45–65 years. I examine the ways in which practitioners [...] Read more.

In this article—based on the fieldwork I conducted in Lisbon (Portugal) between 2018 and 2021, employing in-depth ethnography and self-ethnography—I describe the experience of the medicalization and moralization of beauty in Portuguese women aged 45–65 years. I examine the ways in which practitioners inscribe their expert knowledge on their patients’ bodies, stigmatizing the marks of time and proposing medical treatments and surgeries to “repair” and “correct” them. Beauty and youth are symbolically constructed in medical discourse as visual markers of health, an adequate lifestyle, a strong character and good personal choices (such as not smoking, and a healthy diet and exercise habits). What beauty means within the discourse of anti-aging and therapeutic rejuvenation is increasingly connected to an ideal gender performance of normative, white, middle-class, heterosexual femininity that dismisses structural determinants. The fantasy of eternal youth, linked to a neoliberal ideology of limitless enhancement and individual responsibility, is firmly entrenched in moralizing definitions of aesthetics and gender norms. Finally, my article highlights the ways in which the women I interviewed do not always passively accept the discourse of the devaluation of the ageing body, defining femininity and ageing in their own terms by creating personal variants of the hegemonic normative discourses on beauty and successful ageing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Old and New Actors and Phenomena in the Three-M Processes of Life and Society: Medicalization, Moralization and Misinformation)

Review

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21 pages, 615 KiB

Open AccessReview

Attitudes and Practices towards HPV Vaccination and Its Social Processes in Europe: An Equity-Focused Scoping Review

by Violeta Alarcão and Bilyana Zdravkova

Societies 2022, 12(5), 131; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc12050131 - 18 Sep 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3932

Abstract

The sociological understanding of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination offers the possibility to understand society better as the processes that shape health beliefs and influence HPV vaccine decisions relate to gender, power, and identity. This research aimed to locate, select, and critically assess [...] Read more.

The sociological understanding of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination offers the possibility to understand society better as the processes that shape health beliefs and influence HPV vaccine decisions relate to gender, power, and identity. This research aimed to locate, select, and critically assess scientific evidence regarding the attitudes and practices towards HPV vaccination and its social processes with a focus on health equity. A scoping review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR) and the recommendations made by the Joanna Briggs Institute was undertaken. Medline and Scopus were searched from their start date until December 2021. The review followed the Population/Concept/Context (PCC) inclusion criteria: Population = General population, adults and adolescents, Concept = Empirical data on determinants of HPV vaccination, Context= Studies on attitudes and practices towards HPV vaccination and its social processes with a focus on gender, class, and ethnic/racial inequalities. Of the 235 selected articles, 28 were from European countries and were the focus of this review, with special attention to socio-economic determinants in HPV vaccine hesitancy in Europe, a region increasingly affected by vaccination public distrust and criticism. Barriers and facilitators of HPV vaccine uptake and determinants of immunization were identified. Given the emphasis on health equity, these data are relevant to strengthening vaccination programs to promote vaccination for all people. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Old and New Actors and Phenomena in the Three-M Processes of Life and Society: Medicalization, Moralization and Misinformation)

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Other

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14 pages, 262 KiB

Open AccessConcept Paper

Medicalization of Sexuality and Trans Situations: Evolutions and Transformations

by Alain Giami

Societies 2023, 13(1), 3; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc13010003 - 22 Dec 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4158

Abstract

This article explores the evolution of the definition and the process of medicalization of sexuality during the second half of the 20th century. After a review and discussion of the notion of medicalization, the application of this notion to a few examples is [...] Read more.

This article explores the evolution of the definition and the process of medicalization of sexuality during the second half of the 20th century. After a review and discussion of the notion of medicalization, the application of this notion to a few examples is discussed, including the emergence of sexuality, the demedicalization of homosexuality, the treatment of “sexual disorders”, the prevention of HIV infection, and the gender-affirmation pathways for transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people. The analysis of these situations—in the light of the notion of medicalization—allows us to better understand the multiple facets of this notion. In particular, we observe processes of medicalization and demedicalization, depathologization, and pharmacologization. The notion of medicalization of sexuality appears here as a useful concept for understanding the conceptualization and treatment of diversities in the field of sexuality and gender. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Old and New Actors and Phenomena in the Three-M Processes of Life and Society: Medicalization, Moralization and Misinformation)

51 pages, 530 KiB

Open AccessConcept Paper

A New Time of Reckoning, a Time for New Reckoning: Views on Health and Society, Tensions between Medicine and the Social Sciences, and the Process of Medicalization

by Diogo Silva da Cunha and Hélder Raposo

Societies 2022, 12(4), 119; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc12040119 - 13 Aug 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4554

Abstract

This article seeks to capture variations and tensions in the relationships between the health–illness–medicine complex and society. It presents several theoretical reconstructions, established theses and arguments are reassessed and criticized, known perspectives are realigned according to a new theorizing narrative, and some new [...] Read more.

This article seeks to capture variations and tensions in the relationships between the health–illness–medicine complex and society. It presents several theoretical reconstructions, established theses and arguments are reassessed and criticized, known perspectives are realigned according to a new theorizing narrative, and some new notions are proposed. In the first part, we argue that relations between the medical complex and society are neither formal–abstract nor historically necessary. In the second part, we take the concept of medicalization and the development of medicalization critique as an important example of the difficult coalescence between health and society, but also as an alternative to guide the treatment of these relationships. Returning to the medicalization studies, we suggest a new synthesis, reconceptualizing it as a set of modalities, including medical imperialism. In the third part, we endorse replacing a profession-based approach to medicalization with a knowledge-based approach. However, we argue that such an approach should include varieties of sociological knowledge. In this context, we propose an enlarged knowledge-based orientation for standardizing the relationships between the health–illness–medicine complex and society. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Old and New Actors and Phenomena in the Three-M Processes of Life and Society: Medicalization, Moralization and Misinformation)

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