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The birth of cancer policies in France
Author(s) -
Pinell Patrice,
Brossat Sylvia
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
sociology of health and illness
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1467-9566
pISSN - 0141-9889
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9566.ep10837409
Subject(s) - politics , representation (politics) , cancer , period (music) , medical care , sociology , class (philosophy) , political science , gender studies , law , medicine , family medicine , epistemology , aesthetics , philosophy
Abstract This paper analyses the social conditions of emergence of cancer politics in France in the inter‐war period. It examines the historical circumstances whereby various segments of the dominant class‐surgeons, 'scientist’ doctors, philanthropists ‐ and 'society ladies’ concurred to create an ‘anti‐cancer movement’ and to found a new discipline, i.e., cancerology, as well as a novel form of organizing medical care, i.e., cancer centres. It then examines the process of construction of a representation of cancer as a scourge disease, combining elements of medical, scientific and lay discourses.