New Medical Technologies and Society

New Medical Technologies and Society Reordering Life

Paperback (31 May 2004)

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Publisher's Synopsis

New medical technologies are increasingly at the centre of novel transformations in the human and social body. Whilst reproduction, health, ageing and dying have long been areas for technical intervention, the emergence of molecular biology and information technology raise far-reaching political, social and subjective questions.

New Medical Technologies and Society provides a critical introduction to the role and cultural significance of technological innovation in redefining the boundaries of medicine and the body, tracing this process through the figure of "the lifecourse". Drawing on approaches from sociology and Science and Technology Studies, the authors explore key issues, theories and debates at the junctures of bodies and medicine. In a style that is both innovative and challenging, Nik Brown and Andrew Webster open up an important examination of new medical technologies not only for those directly engaged, but for a wider audience interested in the ways in which contemporary technologies can be interrogated through core sociological inquiry. They argue that, whilst many technologies emerge from and extend long-standing frameworks of medical treatment, genuinely novel and radical challenges to our interpretations of embodiment are emerging.

The book will be essential reading for both students and scholars of the sociology of science and technology, medical sociology, social theory, genetics and informatics.

Book information

ISBN: 9780745627243
Publisher: Polity Press
Imprint: Polity Press
Pub date:
DEWEY: 306.461
DEWEY edition: 22
Language: English
Number of pages: 216
Weight: 346g
Height: 155mm
Width: 230mm
Spine width: 21mm