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People, other animals and health knowledges: Towards a research agenda

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  • Rock, Melanie
  • Mykhalovskiy, Eric
  • Schlich, Thomas

Abstract

By serving as experimental models for human disease, animals have been instrumental to constructing biomedical knowledge. On the other hand, animals themselves increasingly benefit from biomedical expertise and technologies, as patients in their own right. Healthy companion animals have recently come to be viewed explicitly as potential sources of human health, which contrasts with the potential for animals to injure people or transmit infectious disease. In studies of biomedical and other health knowledges, nevertheless, only the animal model role has been explored in any depth. In this review article, we sketch and discuss three research concerns that currently inform studies of biomedical knowledge: medicalization and biomedicalization; constructing biomedical knowledge; and a concern with heterogeneity. We conclude that a more comprehensive and nuanced account of contemporary societies will result from further consideration of the importance of animals for how people understand health.

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  • Rock, Melanie & Mykhalovskiy, Eric & Schlich, Thomas, 2007. "People, other animals and health knowledges: Towards a research agenda," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(9), pages 1970-1976, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:64:y:2007:i:9:p:1970-1976
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Wood, Lisa & Giles-Corti, Billie & Bulsara, Max, 2005. "The pet connection: Pets as a conduit for social capital?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(6), pages 1159-1173, September.
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    3. Williams, Simon J. & Calnan, Michael, 1996. "The 'limits' of medicalization?: Modern medicine and the lay populace in 'late' modernity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 42(12), pages 1609-1620, June.
    4. Davidson, Rosemary & Kitzinger, Jenny & Hunt, Kate, 2006. "The wealthy get healthy, the poor get poorly? Lay perceptions of health inequalities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(9), pages 2171-2182, May.
    5. Good, Mary-Jo Delvecchio, 1995. "Cultural studies of biomedicine: An agenda for research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 461-473, August.
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    Cited by:

    1. Christine Roseveare & Mary Breheny & Juliana Mansvelt & Linda Murray & Marg Wilkie & M. Carolyn Gates, 2023. "Companion Animal Fostering as Health Promotion: A Literature Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(13), pages 1-11, June.
    2. Rock, Melanie & Buntain, Bonnie J. & Hatfield, Jennifer M. & Hallgrímsson, Benedikt, 2009. "Animal-human connections, "one health," and the syndemic approach to prevention," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(6), pages 991-995, March.
    3. Rock, Melanie J. & Degeling, Chris, 2015. "Public health ethics and more-than-human solidarity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 61-67.

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