Research Catalog

Cancer in the community : class and medical authority

Title: Cancer in the community : class and medical authority / Martha Balshem.
Author: Balshem, Martha Levittan.
Publication: Washington : Smithsonian Institution Press, ©1993.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Use in library	RA645.C3 B35 1993	Off-site

Details

Description

xviii, 174 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

"Focusing on deep conflicts between the medical establishment and the working class, Martha Balshem chronicles a health education project in "Tannerstown," a pseudonym for a blue-collar neighborhood in northeast Philadelphia. Her study is based on her experience as a health educator and anthropologist at the Fox Chase Cancer Center, working with a team of behavioral scientists to educate the public about cancer risk factors. Incorporating emotional, vivid interviews and rich personal narratives, Cancer in the Community addresses such issues as the ethics of professional authority, class antagonisms, and the politicization of cancer." "Identified in an epidemiological report as a "cancer hot spot," Tannerstown was targeted by Fox Chase's Project CAN-DO as a community in need of professional guidance. Health educators advised residents to stop smoking, improve their diets, and schedule regular cancer screening tests. This advice, supposedly regarded by the American public as sound and "true," nevertheless was rejected by most Tannerstowners, who believed industrial pollution from nearby chemical plants and air pollution from traffic were the major causes of cancer in their community." "Probing the chronic frustration and distrust that persisted between the two groups, Balshem found that medical professionals tended to view working-class patients as problems in need of correction, while Tannerstowners saw doctors as arrogant and controlling. The medical professionals believed that cancer risk was largely attributable to lifestyle factors, but community residents refused to accept "blame" for their disease. While still part of the Fox Chase team, Balshem began to question the right of medical authorities to dictate changes in lifestyle while discounting the residents' self-diagnosis of environmental risk factors."
"Cancer in the Community includes a case history of one Tannerstown resident who died of cancer. Extensive - and wrenching - interviews with the patient's wife and his physician illuminate the underlying struggles concerning social class, power inequalities, and the control of knowledge. In a passionate critique of health education and the constraints of medical professionalism, Balshem traces the sources of conflict about the causes of and treatment for cancer to deeper oppositions concerning truth, justice, and meaning."--Jacket.

Series Statement

Smithsonian series in ethnographic inquiry

Uniform Title

Smithsonian series in ethnographic inquiry

Subject

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p. [157]-169) and index.

Contents

Defining the topic -- The Study community -- Project CAN-DO -- A Cancer death -- Meaning for the anthropologist -- Changing the victim.

ISBN

1560982500
9781560982500
1560982519
9781560982517

LCCN

92048963

OCLC

ocm26935120
26935120
SCSB-14652112

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library