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Drugs for Life; Subcultural Identity

Laurie Taylor explores the growing medicalisation of our everyday lives. Also, hanging on to a subcultural identity when youth has passed.

Drugs for life - Laurie Taylor talks to the US anthropologist, Joseph Dumit, about his research into the burgeoning consumption of medicine in the US. Dumit did ethnographic research with drug company executives, marketers, researchers, doctors and patients, and assessed the industry's strategies for expanding their markets. He asks if the huge growth in medication ties us to a radically new conception of ourselves as intrinsically ill and need of treatment. Is this a uniquely American development or does it equally apply to the UK and beyond? He's joined by the British sociologist, John Abraham.

Also, hanging on to a subcultural identity in later life - we hear from listeners who still carry a torch for their youthful selves, be it as teds, mods, punks or goths....Professor Angela McRobbie analyses the phenomenon.

Producer: Chris Wilson.

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28 minutes

Last on

Mon 11 Mar 2013 00:15

Joseph Dumit

Professor of Anthropology and Director of Science & Technology Studies, University of California, Davis


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Drugs for Life: How Pharmaceutical Companies Define Our Health
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN-10: 0822348713
ISBN-13: 978-0822348719

John Abraham

Professor of Sociology at King's College London


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Unhealthy Pharmaceutical Regulation: Innovation, Politics and Promissory Science
John Abraham (Author), Courtney Davis (Author)
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN-10: 0230008666
ISBN-13: 978-0230008663

Angela McRobbie

Professor of Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London


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The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change
Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd
ISBN-10: 0761970622
ISBN-13: 978-0761970620

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  • Wed 6 Mar 2013 16:00
  • Mon 11 Mar 2013 00:15

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