Medicalization in cyberspace

Abstract

To appreciate what is involved in our examination of the medicalization of cyberspace, it is necessary to give a brief overview of some of its characteristics. We explore the various themes evident in the literature on medicalization, as they relate to cyberspace and offer some indication of the theoretical frame for our analysis. Our position is that an exploration of what is happening in online environments can gain from and contribute to wider theories on processes of medicalization. Medicalization is a widely used concept, and, for decades, it has been applied to an expansive range of literature across various fields, perhaps most notably within the sociology of health and illness (Broom and Woodward 1996; Ballard and Elston 2005). Tracing a detailed history of change in the way medicalization has been dealt with politically, academically and medically in the United Kingdom is beyond the scope of this book, though we do register some of the subtle shifts that have occurred in how it has been conceptualized in recent years. To that end, we highlight some of the key features of medicalization and the theoretical discussions that have ensued about the relevancy of this concept in contemporary society. Since our thesis on medicalization of cyberspace has its literary roots in Web studies, medical sociology, the sociology of health, and cyborgology, it provides a developing perspective on the concept of medicalization.

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