Biomedical ambivalence

Asthma diagnosis, the pharmaceutical, and other contradictions in Barbados

Bibliographic Data

ID2278740
AuthorsIan Whitmarsh (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume35
Issue1
Pages49-63
Publication date2008-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Ethnologist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0094-0496 • E-ISSN: 1548-1425
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1548-1425.2008.00005.x
OpenAlexW1986616349
LanguageEN
Citations received26
References cited38

In recent years in Barbados, the interaction of multinational pharmaceutical companies, the Ministry of Health (MOH), and international biomedical research has resulted in a focus on pharmaceuticals in public health intervention and the production of an expansive category of asthma. This article explores the views and uses of this process based on fieldwork conducted with doctors, nurses, pharmacists, MOH officials, and patient families involved in asthma care. Following ambiguities and contradictions in the significance of biomedical objects, I argue that this integration of pharmaceutical markets occurs with a foundational instability. Such ambiguity and contradiction are central to both the efficacy and undermining of global economic processes, including "pharmaceuticalization."[pharmaceuticalization, ambiguity, asthma, globalization

Ambiguity · Ambivalence · Asthma · Christian ministry · Contradiction · Epistemology · Expansive · Globalization · Health care · Intervention (counseling · Multinational corporation · Pharmaceutical industry · Political science · Sociology · Caribbean history, culture, and politics · Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology · Law · Medicine · Nursing · Philosophy · Psychology · Race, Genetics, and Society · Social Psychology

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