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Biomedicalization: Technoscientific Transformations of Health, Illness, and U.S. Biomedicine

Clarke, Adele E., Shim, Janet K., Mamo, Laura, Fosket, Jennifer Ruth, Fishman, Jennifer R.·2003·American Sociological Review
DOI 10.1177/000312240306800201
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Abstract

The first social transformation of American medicine institutionally established medicine by the end of World War II. In the next decades, medicalization—the expansion of medical jurisdiction, authority, and practices into new realms—became widespread. Since about 1985, dramatic changes in both the organization and practices of contemporary biomedicine, implemented largely through the integration of technoscientific innovations, have been coalescing into what the authors call biomedicalization, a second “transformation “ of American medicine. Biomedicalization describes the increasingly complex, multisited, multidirectional processes of medicalization, both extended and reconstituted through the new social forms of highly technoscientific biomedicine. The historical shift from medicalization to biomedicalization is one from control over biomedical phenomena to transformations of them. Five key interactive processes both engender biomedicalization and are produced through it: (1) the political economic reconstitution of the vast sector of biomedicine; (2) the focus on health itself and the elaboration of risk and surveillance biomedicines; (3) the increasingly technological and scientific nature of biomedicine; (4) transformations in how biomedical knowledges are produced, distributed, and consumed, and in medical information management; and (5) transformations of bodies to include new properties and the production of new individual and collective technoscientific identities.

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Crossref · 10.1177/000312240306800201

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  • Modern biomedicine introduces ambiguity and inertia as responsibility for decision-making is dispersed throughout a range of actors including regulatory agencies, clinical researchers, industry stakeholders, and healthcare institutions.

    “At the same time, modern biomedicine also introduces ambiguity and inertia as responsibility for decision-making is dispersed throughout a range of actors including regulatory agencies, clinical researchers, industry stakeholders, and healthcare institutions [21].”

    From Managing a 'responsibility vacuum' in AI monitoring and governance in healthcare: a qualitative study (2025) · cites this paper as [21]

  • There has been a shift from medicalization to biomedicalization, with the latter characterized by increasing interpenetration of science and industry.

    “Adele Clarke and her colleagues (2003) argued that there has been a shift from medicalization to biomedicalization, with the latter characterized by increasing interpenetration of science and industry.”

    From Medicalization and the Refashioning of Age-Related Limits on Sexuality (2012) · cites this paper as Clarke et al., 2003

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Authors
Clarke, A. E., Shim, J. K., Mamo, L., Fosket, J. R., & Fishman, J. R.
Affiliations
  • University of California, San Francisco (US)
  • University of Maryland, College Park (US)
ORCID
Venue
American Sociological Review
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Published
2003-04
Volume
68
Issue
2
Pages
161-194
ISSN
  • 0003-1224 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-8271
DOI
10.1177/000312240306800201
OpenAlex
W4385886633
Cited by
560
References
183
Citations by year
2026: 61 · 2025: 71 · 2024: 62 · 2023: 52 · 2022: 34 · 2021: 37 · 2020: 46 · 2019: 48 · 2018: 25 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 14
FWCI
2.45
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)
Locations
American Sociological Review (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Reproductive Medicine › Science, Research, and Medicine
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health, Medicine and Society
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Medicine, History, and Philosophy
Keywords
biomedicalization, medicalization, biomedicine, health and illness, health information management, history of American medicine

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