75068 - Health, Technology and Society

Learning outcomes

t the end of the course, the student will be familiar with the main sociological concepts related to health, with a peculiar focus on the intersections between medicine and new technologies. More specifically, the concepts here involved are: medicalization, social determinants, health literacy, bio-socialities, genetization and pharmaceuticalization. Being more specific, the student will able to: - to analyze social phenomena related to health by sociological concepts ; - to evaluate from the standpoint of sociological theories the consequences of the technology and social networks related to medicine; - to analyze the relationship between new technologies in the health field and social inequalities.

Course contents

Main concepts that will be discussed in the course:
Medicalization; Health cultures and healthscapes; Social theories for global health; Structural violence Pharmachologization; Biomedicalization; Genetification; Human Enhancement; Reflexive longevity; Digital health; Sociology of diagnosis; Neurochemical selves; Quantified self.

Readings/Bibliography

REQUIRED READINGS

 

Maturo A. Shifting borders of medicalization, in Maturo A., Conrad P. (Eds.) (2009), The Medicalization of Life, Salute e Società, n. 2

 

Conrad P. Shifting Engines of Medicalization, in Maturo A., Conrad P. (Eds.) (2009), The Medicalization of Life, Salute e Società, n. 2

 

 

Horowitz A. and Wakefield J.C. The Medicalization of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed a Natural Emotion into a Mental Disorder

 

Farmer P. (2005), Pathologies of Power, University of California Press, Berkeley: Ch. 1 On suffering and structural violence, pp. 29-50.

 

Scalvini M. (2010), Glamorizing sick body: how advertising has changed the representation of HIV/AIDS, Social Semiotics, 20(3): 219-231

 

 

Rose N. (2004), Becoming neurochemical selves, in Stehr N. (2004) (Eds.), Biotechnology, Commerce, and Civil Society, Transaction Press, http://www2.lse.ac.uk/sociology/pdf/rose-becomingneurochemicalselves.pdf

 

 

Kleinman P. (2010), Four social theories for global health, The Lancet, 375: 1518-1519

 

Wolf G. (2010), The Data-Driven Life, in «The New York Times – Sunday Review», May 2nd.

 

Furedi F. (2006), The End of Professional Dominance, “Society”, 43(6): 14-18

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02698479?LI=true#page-1

 

Oeppen J., Vaupel J.W. (2002), Demography. Broken limits to life expectancy, Science, 296: 1029-1031

Olshanky S.J. et (2005), A Potential Decline in Life Expectancy in the United States in the 21st Century, New England Journal of Medicine, 352: 1138-1145

 

Kaufman S.R. (2010), Time, clinic technologies, and the making of reflexive longevity: the cultural work of time left in an ageing society, in: Sociology of Health and Illness, 32/2 – Special Issue : Eds. Joyce K., Loe M. (2010), Technogenarians: studying health and illness through an ageing, science, and tecnology lens

 

Marshall B.L. (2010), Science, medicine and virility surveillance: ‘sexy seniors' in the pharmaceutical imagination, Sociology of Health and Illness, 32/2 – Special Issue : Eds. Joyce K., Loe M. (2010), Technogenarians: studying health and illness through an ageing, science, and tecnology lens

 

 

 

 

 

Maturo A. (2014) Fatism, Self-Monitoring and the Pursuit of Healthiness in the Time of Technological Solutionsim. “Italian Sociological Review”, 2014,  4 (2), 157-171

 

Maturo A. (2012). Social Justice and Human Enhancement in Today's Bionic Society, “Salute e Societa'”, 2012, XI(2): 15-28

 

 

Uchida Y., Norasakkunkit V., Kitayama S. (2004), Cultural Construction of Happiness: Theory and Empirical Evidence, “Journal of Happiness Studies”, 5: 223-239.

 

Veenhoven R. Sociological Theories of Subjective Well-being, in Eid M., Larsen R (Eds.), The Science of Subjective Well-being, Guilford, NY, 2008

 

 

 

Presentations in the classroom are part of the program.

Presentations will be based on one or more articles on HTS.

Students who do not attend classes must e-mail Prof. Maturo to discuss the syllabus.

Presentations in the classroom are part of the program.

Presentations will be based on one or more articles on HTS.

Students who do not attend classes must e-mail Prof. Maturo to discuss the syllabus.

Teaching methods

Group discussion, class work, presentations.

Assessment methods

Final examination.

Presentations in the classroom are part of the program.

Presentations will be based on one or more articles on HTS.

Students who do not attend classes must e-mail Prof. Maturo to discuss the syllabus.

Teaching tools

Powerpoint, group discussion, papers.

Office hours

See the website of Antonio Francesco Maturo