Biographical value: towards a conceptualisation of the commodification of illness narratives in contemporary healthcare

Fadhila Mazanderani; Louise Locock; John Powell

doi:10.1111/1467-9566.12001

Biographical value: towards a conceptualisation of the commodification of illness narratives in contemporary healthcare

Fadhila Mazanderani, Louise Locock, John Powell

Health Services Research Unit (HSRU)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

33 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Illness narratives play a central role in social studies of health and illness, serving as both a key theoretical focus and a popular research method. Despite this, relatively little work has gone into conceptualising how and why illness narratives – be they in books, websites, television or other media – are commodified in contemporary healthcare and its social environment; namely, how distinctive forms of value are generated in the production, circulation, use and exchange of illness narratives. In this article we propose the notion of biographical value as a first step towards conceptualising the values attributed to illness narratives in this context. Based on a secondary analysis of 37 interviews with people affected by 15 different health conditions in the UK (all of whom have shared their illness experiences across various media) and drawing on understandings of value in research on the bioeconomy and the concept of biovalue in particular, we sketch out how epistemic, ethical and economic forms of value converge and co-constitute each other in the notion of biographical value and in broader economies of illness experiences.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	891-905
Number of pages	15
Journal	Sociology of Health & Illness
Volume	35
Issue number	6
Early online date	2 Apr 2013
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.12001
Publication status	Published - 1 Jul 2013

Bibliographical note

The authors would like to thank all the interview participants, the primary researchers who conducted the interviews and the organisations that funded the original studies. Without the time and commitment of all those involved this work would not have been possible. The anonymous reviewers provided extremely useful feedback on a previous version of this article. The iPEx (2011) programme presents independent research commissioned by the NIHR under its Programme Grants for Applied Research funding scheme (RP-PG-0608–10147). The views expressed in this article are those of the authors, representing iPEx, and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health.

Keywords

illness narratives
biography
biovalue
healthcare
sharing experiences

Access to Document

10.1111/1467-9566.12001Licence: Unspecified

Cite this

@article{e90ff99b68fa42948b99548d3103498f,

title = "Biographical value: towards a conceptualisation of the commodification of illness narratives in contemporary healthcare",

abstract = "Illness narratives play a central role in social studies of health and illness, serving as both a key theoretical focus and a popular research method. Despite this, relatively little work has gone into conceptualising how and why illness narratives – be they in books, websites, television or other media – are commodified in contemporary healthcare and its social environment; namely, how distinctive forms of value are generated in the production, circulation, use and exchange of illness narratives. In this article we propose the notion of biographical value as a first step towards conceptualising the values attributed to illness narratives in this context. Based on a secondary analysis of 37 interviews with people affected by 15 different health conditions in the UK (all of whom have shared their illness experiences across various media) and drawing on understandings of value in research on the bioeconomy and the concept of biovalue in particular, we sketch out how epistemic, ethical and economic forms of value converge and co-constitute each other in the notion of biographical value and in broader economies of illness experiences.",

keywords = "illness narratives, biography, biovalue, healthcare, sharing experiences",

author = "Fadhila Mazanderani and Louise Locock and John Powell",

note = "The authors would like to thank all the interview participants, the primary researchers who conducted the interviews and the organisations that funded the original studies. Without the time and commitment of all those involved this work would not have been possible. The anonymous reviewers provided extremely useful feedback on a previous version of this article. The iPEx (2011) programme presents independent research commissioned by the NIHR under its Programme Grants for Applied Research funding scheme (RP-PG-0608–10147). The views expressed in this article are those of the authors, representing iPEx, and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health.",

year = "2013",

month = jul,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1111/1467-9566.12001",

language = "English",

volume = "35",

pages = "891--905",

journal = "Sociology of Health & Illness",

issn = "0141-9889",

publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",

number = "6",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Biographical value

T2 - towards a conceptualisation of the commodification of illness narratives in contemporary healthcare

AU - Mazanderani, Fadhila

AU - Locock, Louise

AU - Powell, John

N1 - The authors would like to thank all the interview participants, the primary researchers who conducted the interviews and the organisations that funded the original studies. Without the time and commitment of all those involved this work would not have been possible. The anonymous reviewers provided extremely useful feedback on a previous version of this article. The iPEx (2011) programme presents independent research commissioned by the NIHR under its Programme Grants for Applied Research funding scheme (RP-PG-0608–10147). The views expressed in this article are those of the authors, representing iPEx, and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health.

PY - 2013/7/1

Y1 - 2013/7/1

N2 - Illness narratives play a central role in social studies of health and illness, serving as both a key theoretical focus and a popular research method. Despite this, relatively little work has gone into conceptualising how and why illness narratives – be they in books, websites, television or other media – are commodified in contemporary healthcare and its social environment; namely, how distinctive forms of value are generated in the production, circulation, use and exchange of illness narratives. In this article we propose the notion of biographical value as a first step towards conceptualising the values attributed to illness narratives in this context. Based on a secondary analysis of 37 interviews with people affected by 15 different health conditions in the UK (all of whom have shared their illness experiences across various media) and drawing on understandings of value in research on the bioeconomy and the concept of biovalue in particular, we sketch out how epistemic, ethical and economic forms of value converge and co-constitute each other in the notion of biographical value and in broader economies of illness experiences.

AB - Illness narratives play a central role in social studies of health and illness, serving as both a key theoretical focus and a popular research method. Despite this, relatively little work has gone into conceptualising how and why illness narratives – be they in books, websites, television or other media – are commodified in contemporary healthcare and its social environment; namely, how distinctive forms of value are generated in the production, circulation, use and exchange of illness narratives. In this article we propose the notion of biographical value as a first step towards conceptualising the values attributed to illness narratives in this context. Based on a secondary analysis of 37 interviews with people affected by 15 different health conditions in the UK (all of whom have shared their illness experiences across various media) and drawing on understandings of value in research on the bioeconomy and the concept of biovalue in particular, we sketch out how epistemic, ethical and economic forms of value converge and co-constitute each other in the notion of biographical value and in broader economies of illness experiences.

KW - illness narratives

KW - biography

KW - biovalue

KW - healthcare

KW - sharing experiences

U2 - 10.1111/1467-9566.12001

DO - 10.1111/1467-9566.12001

M3 - Article

SN - 0141-9889

VL - 35

SP - 891

EP - 905

JO - Sociology of Health & Illness

JF - Sociology of Health & Illness

IS - 6

ER -

Biographical value: towards a conceptualisation of the commodification of illness narratives in contemporary healthcare

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this