Fourteenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Medicalization means turning different social problems into treatable conditions and diseases using various linguistical and institutional tools. The process has been observed and described since early 60s, initially by psychiatrists disappointed with their specialty and later by sociologists of medicine. Following such prominent experts in the field as Richard Crawford, Peter Conrad, or Adele Clarke, sociologists conceptualize medicalization as a multidimensional social phenomenon which is affecting more and more aspects of our lives because of technical solutions of complex social dilemmas offered by pharmaceutical companies. At the same time, constructivists focused on international relations, such as Emanuel Adler or Peter Haas began to investigate the role of scientific knowledge in policy-making which was transferred by the so called ‘epistemic communities’. They observed that the more complex and technical is the issue, the more needed is scientific opinion and advice in policy-making. In the paper, medicalization was neutrally defined as a change in WHO discourse and policy towards tobacco which resulted in ‘tobacco epidemic’ construct - especially powerful in Central and Eastern Europe. In a research project entitled: Medicalization strategies of the World Health Organization I made textual analysis of WHO internal documents and critical review of the main WHO initiatives in anti-tobacco sphere, especially in Poland, Romania and Lithuania. Medicalization of tobacco health problems not only let the WHO focus international and regional attention on a problem which otherwise would have been abandoned, but also was an important part of changing social attitude towards smoking.