Venereal Disease, Public Health and Social Control: The Scottish Experience in a Comparative Perspective
Metadatos
Afficher la notice complèteAuteur
Davidson, RogerEditorial
Universidad de Granada
Date
1997Referencia bibliográfica
Davidson, Roger. «Venereal Disease, Public Health and Social Control : the scottish experience in comparative perspective». Dynamis: Acta Hispanica ad Medicinae Scientiarumque Historiam Illustrandam, 1997, Vol. 17, p. 341-368, https://raco.cat/index.php/Dynamis/article/view/106120.
Patrocinador
Wellcome TrustRésumé
During the first half of the twentieth century, VD became in many countries a
metaphor for the forces of phisical and moral pollution that appeared to threaten
social order and racial progress. By reference to some central aspects of the Scottish
experience in a comparative perspective, this article seeks to identify the common
denominator of anxieties and assumptions which fuelled public health initiatives towards
VD and which defined the boundaries within which VD policy options were discussed.
In particular, it will explore various dimensions of social control associated with the
treatrnent and regulation of VD; the degree to which VD controls and procedures have
targetted and stigmatised <<sexuallya ctive* women, their use to regulate the sexual behaviour
of the young, and the way in which discourses shaping medical practice and policy towards
VD have enshrined both class and racial stereotyping. The article also examines the
powerful moral agenda which shaped the categories and content of treatment and the
focus of epidemiology and public health debate. Finally, the institutional and cultural
factors shaping the distinctively compulsionist stance of Scottish public health administration
towards VD will be explored as a means of identifying some of the possible comparators
needed for broader comparative analysis of VD policy in the twentieth century.