Pharmaceuticalisation of Society: Current Debates and Empirical Contributions

There has been a huge growth in pharmaceuticals since the 1980s, giving the companies that make these medicines ever greater authority and importance, economically, politically and socially. In face of this development the concept of pharmaceuticalisation has been employed to capture these companies’ growing power and their ability to by-pass the traditional dominance of the medical profession. In this session we invite contributions which focus on one or more of those dimensions which have been said to underpin the process. These include: redefining health problems as having a pharmaceutical solution; changing forms of governance; mediation by both traditional and new social media; the role of patients and consumer groups; the use of drugs for non-medical purposes; and how expectations about pharmaceutical futures shape the present. These might therefore include studies of changing regulatory systems, new business strategies, novel drug marketing campaigns, the changing relationship between patients and industry, and new forms of biological and gene based therapeutics. We particularly welcome contributions from non-Western and Global South perspectives Theoretical contributions which advance our understanding of the concept are also very welcome.