This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (1) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Kent, J. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Lay Experts and the Politics of Breast Implants

University of the West of England, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol, BS16 1QY, UKJulie.Kent{at}uwe.ac.uk

This paper discusses the controversy around breast implants in the United States and Europe. It focuses on the emergence of consumer and support groups for women and offers an analysis of the role they have played in recent policy developments in UK and Europe. The politics of breast implants is seen as a politics of knowledge in which scientific expertise has consistently been deployed in ways that minimize the credibility and legitimacy of women’s accounts of their bodies and illness experiences. These women have been doubly disadvantaged in a policy debate that turns on scientific controversy and uncertainty. This implies a gendered dynamic to the changing relations of knowledge and expertise. The paper contributes to an understanding of the relations between regulators, manufacturers, users, and clinicians in the global medical device industry and to wider debates around the public understanding of science.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				P. Verhoeven Where has the doctor gone? The mediazation of medicine on Dutch television, 1961--2000 Public Understanding of Science, October 1, 2008; 17(4): 461 - 472. [Abstract] [PDF]