Description
Book SynopsisThe production of pharmaceuticals is among the most profitable industries on the planet. Drug companies produce chemical substances that can save, extend, or substantially improve the quality of human life. This book deals with growing set of problems for communities around the world.
Trade ReviewDietrich presents the story of Nocora (a pseudonym), a municipality in Puerto Rico that has been the recipient of the blessing and curse of having pharmaceutical companies in its backyard. -- I. Glasser * Choice *
"Offers a compelling and thought-provoking account of the politics of recognition in Nocorá Puerto Rico, a municipality where the stench of pollution pervades the air, soil, and water. In Nocorá one lives beneath the shadow of one's corporate `neighbors, an imposing complex of pharmaceutical companies that turns a blind eye to the insidious effects of toxic by-products while boasting of their lucrative trade in health elsewhere. Set against the invisibility of chronic suffering, local grassroots activists must always fight to be seen and heard. Here one encounters a lively cast of people who inhabit an environment both tranquil and contaminated. This is a smart and masterful portrayal of the realities of activism and the power of corporate public relations strategies, a convincing ethnography that integrates medical anthropology and political ecology in expert fashion. Every employee of Big Pharma should be required to read this book.
-- Lesley A. Sharp,Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Anthropology, Barnard College
The Drug Company Next Dooris ambitious, successful, closely reasoned, vivid, exciting, enormously distressing, and challenging on a political and theoretical level. Dietrichs writing is so good that I would recommend this book for use at any level of anthropological study, from undergraduate all the way up. * Political and Legal Anthropology Review *
Dietrichs study fruitfully combines the old and the new as a traditional anthropological community study on a cutting-edge topic of profound global significance. * New West Indian Guide *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Key Events Timeline for Nocora's Environmental Health List of Acronyms A Note on Pseudonyms Introduction: Understanding PoliticalEcologies of Risk in Puerto Rico Little by Little 1 The Dose Makes the Poison: How Making Drugs Harms Environments and People Progress 2 In the Beginning Was the Corporation: Progress, Pollution, and the Public Trust Playing Politics 3 The Rituals and Consequences of Community Politics and Dissent "Fresh Minds" on Parade 4 Environmental Justice Is Not Always Just Good Neighbors (A Conversation) 5 The Pharmaceutical Industry and the Problem of "Stakeholders" "Salud te recomienda" 6 Radical Redistributions of Knowledge: A Holistic View of Environmental Health Epilogue Appendix Notes Bibliography Index About the Author
