Differences in Medicine: Unraveling Practices, Techniques, and BodiesWestern medicine--especially in contrast with non-Western traditions of medical practice--is widely thought of as a coherent and unified field in which beliefs, definitions, and judgments are shared. Marc Berg and Annemarie Mol debunk this myth with an interdisciplinary and intercultural collection of essays that reveals the significantly varied ways practitioners of "conventional" Western medicine handle bodies, study test results, configure statistics, and converse with patients . Combining theoretical work with interviews and direct observation of the activities and interactions of doctors, nurses, technicians, and patients, the contributors to this volume provide comparative studies of specific cases. Individual chapters explore topics such as the contested domain of fetal surgery in a California hospital, the construction of gender identity before transsexual surgery in Germany, and differences in the treatment and definition of pain by two clinics in France. Differences in Medicine advances earlier studies on medicine's social diversity and regional variations to expose significant differences in the presumptions and decisions that affect patients' lives, and marks a dramatic development in both the study of medicine and in science studies generally. Revealing the ways in which the bodies and lives of people are constructed as medical objects by practitioners, technologies, and textbooks, this collection calls for and initiates new, more textured investigations and theories of the body in medicine and the practice of science. It will open new discussions among medical and healthcare professionals as well as scholars in medical anthropology, science studies, sociology, philosophy, and the history of medicine. Contributors. Isabelle Baszanger, Marc Berg, Geoffrey C. Bowker, Monica J. Casper, Charis M. Cussins, Nicolas Dodier, Stefan Hirschauer, Annemarie Mol, Vicky Singleton, Susan Leigh Star, Stefan Timmermans, Dick Willems |
Contents
Isabelle Baszanger | 9 |
Monica J Casper | 28 |
Nicolas Dodier | 53 |
Vicky Singleton | 86 |
Dick Willems | 103 |
All Alike All Different | 119 |
Annemarie | 139 |
Cussins | 166 |
Stefan Timmermans Geoffrey C Bowker Susan Leigh Star | 202 |
Of Protocols | 226 |
References | 247 |
| 267 | |
Other editions - View all
Differences in Medicine: Unraveling Practices, Techniques, and Bodies Marc Berg,Annemarie Mol Limited preview - 1998 |
Differences in Medicine: Unraveling Practices, Techniques, and Bodies Mol Annemarie Berg Marc No preview available - 2014 |
Differences in Medicine: Unraveling Practices, Techniques, and Bodies Marc Berg,Annemarie Mol No preview available - 1998 |
Common terms and phrases
activities actors administrative frame agency airways analysis approach asthma atherosclerosis Berg body bronchodilator Bulechek cancer cells chronic pain classification system clinical frame construction control theory criteria Culture defined diagnosis disease Dodier domain drugs edited elements embryos employees endocrinologists example fetal surgery Fetal Treatment fetus fetuses gate control theory gender hormone hospital identity in-vitro fertilization individual infertility inhalation instability interaction involved laboratory Latour lungs lymph nodes Management medical practice ment negotiations nodes objectification objects obstetricians occupational doctors ontology operation pain centers pain medicine patient person physicians possible practitioners pregnant women problem procedures professional protocol psychiatrist question reference risk role rules salbutamol sample Science scientific social workers Sociology specific standardized Strauss surgeons symptoms synecdochal talk techniques therapy things tion tool transsexuals treated ultrasound University Press uterus vessel woman