Winner of the 2007 Robert K. Merton Professional Award for the best recent book published in science and technology studies
(American Sociological Association, Section on Science, Knowledge & Technology)
Winner of the 2008 Eliot Freidson Outstanding Publication Award for the best recent book that has had a major impact on the field of medical sociology
(American Sociological Association, Medical Sociology Section)
In the United States over the last two decades, a diverse set of advocates, experts, and policymakers have sought to reform medical research by making it more inclusive--principally by including more women, racial and ethnic minorities, children, and the elderly as research subjects, and by testing for outcome differences across categories such as sex, gender, race, ethnicity, and age. In this book, using an amalgam of theoretical tools drawn from sociology, science studies, and critical studies of gender and race, I show how this distinctive way of thinking about bodies, identities, and differences gained supporters, took institutional form as law and policy, and become converted into common sense. I also investigate its various consequences (intended and otherwise) for biomedical research, pharmaceutical drug development, "profiling" practices in health care, and cultural understandings of the meanings of sex and race.
While defending certain aspects of the "inclusion-and-difference paradigm," I also investigate its ironic consequences. In particular, I argue that its emphasis on understanding group differences in biological terms makes it a problematic tool for addressing health inequalities.
Order it at a discount from amazon.com
Read the opening pages of Inclusion
