Eighth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

The paper assumes a broader sociological perspective in order to reflect upon contemporary anti-vaccination movements as collective agents employed in the elaboration and perpetuation of structures and systems typical of (bio)medicalized societies. Typically, anti-vaccination movements are perceived in overtly axio-normative terms as vehicles of public distrust vested in the modern system of biomedicine. This paper wishes to expand the aforementioned conceptualization by placing anti-vaccination movements in a more sociologically diversified field of considerations, which involves refering to ideal, normative, interactive and opportunity structures (the INIO model of social structure). In this essentially morphogenetic context, anti-vaccination movements could be perceived as both consequences of modernization tendencies implicit in the system of biomedicine and agents that subvert values, norms and institutions (e.g. patient empowerment, self-tracking practices, alternative medicine) in-built in the system of (bio)medicalization characterizing contemporary societies.