Human enhancement, or the use of biomedical technology to improve human performance in a variety of spheres, is taking medicine into new terrain. Rather than treating the sick, human enhancement involves creating what has been called the “bionic society”. In such a society human nature is transformed by biomedical technology, with significant consequences. This volume examines and provides a sociological analysis of this increasingly important development.
cod. 1341.52
Oggi i farmaci sono utilizzati in modo crescente per modificare aspetti del nostro carattere (emozioni) e delle nostre possibilità di performance (cognizioni). La sociologia è chiamata a riflettere su come le innovazioni biotecnologiche, che permettono la rimodulazione di cognizioni ed emozioni, trasformano le identità nella società comunicazionale di oggi. Una società sempre più “bionica”.
cod. 1341.51
Gruppi di sostegno telematici, pazienti-consumatori e medicalizzazione: il caso delle patologie controverse - This article illustrates the role electronic support groups play in consumerdriven medicalization. The analysis is based on an observational study of a year in the life of an electronic support group for sufferers of the contested illness fibromyalgia syndrome. The analysis builds on and extends scholarship concerning the growing influence of lay expertise in the context of medical uncertainty by showing how the dominant beliefs and routine practices of this electronic community simultaneously (and paradoxically) challenge the expertise of physicians and encourage the expansion of medicine’s jurisdiction. Drawing on their shared embodied expertise, participants confirm the medical character of their problem and its remedy, and they empower each other to search for physicians who will recognize and treat their condition accordingly. Physician compliance is introduced as a useful concept for understanding the relationship between lay expertise, patient-consumer demand, and contemporary (and future) instances of medicalization.
Keywords: electronic support groups; ICT; health care; medicalisation; fibromyalgia syndrome; contested illness.
Partendo dall’evoluzione dei centri unificati di prenotazione, passando all’espansione del progetto SOLE-Sanità On Line, sino ad arrivare alle più recenti sfide della rete e-Care e dei nuovi sportelli sociali, il volume mostra come le tecnologie telecomunicative, se integrate con la realtà sociale, possano ridurne la complessità, aiutando il cittadino ad accedere ai servizi sanitari in un’ottica sempre più di equità, flessibilità e trasparenza.
cod. 1341.27