Module SOC2037 for 2022/3
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
SOC2037: Pharmaceutical Cultures
This module descriptor refers to the 2022/3 academic year.
Module Aims
You will be introduced to literature which shows how pharmaceuticals affect society and how pharmaceutical products are affected by social factors. You will make critical assessments of pharmaceutical marketing, unpacking notions such as ‘disease-mongering’ which create new markets for drug consumption. You will assess the relationship between pharmaceutical products and social control, in spheres such as mental health. You will examine how uses and experiences of medications vary across cultures and across different social groups; and how these differences link into wider international policy regulations of pharma products. As such, this module will develop your critical thinking in relation to the contemporary literature on the pharmaceuticalization of society, as well as stimulate your own intellectual interest in this area.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
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Module-Specific Skills | 1. demonstrate knowledge of, analyse and show some critical engagement with, a range of models and theories concerning pharmaceuticals and pharmaceuticalization of society 2. show some ability to relate these perspectives to empirical studies and public policy on pharmaceutical consumption, production and international regulation; |
Discipline-Specific Skills | 3. demonstrate in writing and orally some competence in using major theoretical perspectives and concepts in sociology and their application to social life ; 4. demonstrate in writing and orally an ability to analyse empirical sociological materials and some critically engagement with these involving complex reasoning; |
Personal and Key Skills | 5. develop an ability to engage in complex arguments verbally and in small groups; 6. demonstrate in writing an ability to analyse, begin to critically engage with, and report accurately on existing written material whilst articulating it within a structured and cogent argument. 7. demonstrate the ability to work independently, within a limited time frame, and without access to external sources, to complete a specified task. |
Module Content
Syllabus Plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following themes:
- Origins and expansion of pharmaceutical industries and markets.
- The political economy of drug development, testing and regulation.
- Pharmaceuticals and social change.
- Pharmaceuticals, deviance, and social control.
- Medicalisation of everyday life and the rise of ‘lifestyle drugs’.
- Nonmedical uses of prescription drugs: Abuse/recreational use.
- Nonmedical uses of prescription drugs: Enhancement.
- Iatrogenic (medical) addiction to pharmaceuticals: why do doctors still prescribe?
Learning and Teaching
This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
---|---|---|
22 | 128 |
...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:
Category | Hours of study time | Description |
---|---|---|
Scheduled learning activity | 22 | 11 x 2 hours per week comprising of lectures and seminars |
Guided independent study | 40 | 20 course readings (2 hours each) |
Guided independent study | 40 | Reading/research for essay |
Guided independent study | 8 | Prep for article critique |
Guided independent study | 40 | Reading/revisions for examination |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
How this Module is Assessed
In the tables below, you will see reference to 'ILO's. An ILO is an Intended Learning Outcome - see Aims and Learning Outcomes for details of the ILOs for this module.
Formative Assessment
A formative assessment is designed to give you feedback on your understanding of the module content but it will not count towards your mark for the module.
Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
---|---|---|---|
Article critique in class (group activity) | 15 minutes | 1, 3, 4, 6 | Written |
Summative Assessment
A summative assessment counts towards your mark for the module. The table below tells you what percentage of your mark will come from which type of assessment.
Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
---|---|---|
50 | 50 | 0 |
...and this table provides further details on the summative assessments for this module.
Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
---|---|---|---|---|
Examination | 50 | 1 hour | 1-4, 6-7 | Written |
Essay | 50 | 1,800 words | 1-4, 6 | Written |
0 | ||||
0 | ||||
0 | ||||
0 |
Re-assessment
Re-assessment takes place when the summative assessment has not been completed by the original deadline, and the student has been allowed to refer or defer it to a later date (this only happens following certain criteria and is always subject to exam board approval). For obvious reasons, re-assessments cannot be the same as the original assessment and so these alternatives are set. In cases where the form of assessment is the same, the content will nevertheless be different.
Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
---|---|---|---|
Examination | Examination (1 hour) | 1-4, 6-7 | August/September reassessment period |
Essay | Essay (1,800 words) | 1-4, 6 | August/September reassessment period |
Indicative Reading List
This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.
DeGrandpre, R. J. (2006). The cult of pharmacology: how America became the world's most troubled drug culture. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.
Dumit, J., & Greenslit, N. (eds) (2006). Pharmaceutical cultures. Special issue of Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, 30(2).
Healy, D. (2002). The creation of psychopharmacology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Lakoff, A. (2005). Pharmaceutical reason: knowledge and value in global psychiatry. Cambridge: CUP.
Martin, E. (2007). Bipolar expeditions: mania and depression in American culture. Princeton, N.J: Princeton UP.
Moncrieff, J. (2008). The myth of the chemical cure: a critique of psychiatric drug treatment. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Petryna, A., Lakoff, A., & Kleinman, A. (eds) (2006). Global pharmaceuticals: ethics, markets, practices. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.
van der Geest, S., Whyte, S. R., & Hardon, A. (1996). The anthropology of pharmaceuticals: a biographical approach. Annual Review of Anthropology, 25(1), 153-178.
Williams, S. J., Gabe, J., & Davis, P. (eds) (2009). Pharmaceuticals and society: critical discourses and debates. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.