Communicative Biocapitalism examines the cultural, technological, economic, and rhetorical logics that shape the "voice of the patient" in digital health, arguing that digital technologies rely on assumptions that reflect dominant ideologies of health, disability, gender, and race. While late 20th- century activism targeted inequalities in health and health care, these are not the central concerns of digital health; digital health tools such as the FitBit and Apple's HealthKit are instead marketed as neutral devices made to help users take responsibility for their health. The book treats a wide range of examples, including patient- networking websites, the Quantified Self, and online breast cancer narratives to understand how the attention economy, platform regulations, and big data logics impinge on how digital health tools configure the "voice of the patient." This configuration has real world effects, influencing pharmaceutical development, digital tool engineering, and how the politics of illness are made invisible.

About the Author
Olivia Banner is Assistant Professor of Critical Media Studies at the University of Texas, Dallas.

Reviews
This critique of medical humanities principles and practices is much needed and deftly handled. The book reveals the stakes of the problems of narrative and empathy, of individualizing illness and ignoring the structural dimensions of illness and disability by revealing these issues in a context relatively new to medical humanities: digital health."" - Rebecca Garden, Columbia University

""An elegant transdisciplinary critique of the structural inequalities and capitalist goals of emerging digital health technologies and practices. Banner's methods and resulting insights about the kinds of value and lives generated by digital health technological practices will be particularly invaluable for anyone interested in the rich interdisciplinary zones where humanities, digital studies, and health care converge, as in health and medical humanities. For those who want to understand what happens to patient voice and experience under biocapitalism, this is the book to read."" - Jacqueline Wernimont, Arizona State University



Book Information
ISBN 9780472053698
Author Olivia Banner
Format Paperback
Page Count 230
Imprint The University of Michigan Press
Publisher The University of Michigan Press
Weight(grams) 360g