Technical Communication Quarterly Sep 2009

Agency and the Rhetoric of Medicine: Biomedical Brain Scans and the Ontology of Fibromyalgia

S. Scott Graham Iowa State University

Abstract

Recent agency scholarship has provided compelling accounts of how individuals can strategically occupy authoritative positions, in order to instantiate change. This article explores the discursive mechanisms of this type of agency in the legitimization of disease. Drawing on ethnographic research, this article investigates how a non-human agent (brain scans) contributed to fibromyalgia's acceptance within the highly regulated discourses of western biomedicine.

Journal
Technical Communication Quarterly
Published
2009-09-17
DOI
10.1080/10572250903149555
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Topics
rhetorical criticism qualitative research
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