Participation Type
Paper
Session Title
Session 5.07 Health and Medicine
Presentation #1 Title
Cancer Prevention as a Regional Social Problem: The Discourse of “Grassroots” Participation
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
This paper presents research which examines cancer prevention in eastern Kentucky not only as a medical problem, but also as a social problem. I use social network analysis to visualize the extent of connection among cancer prevention coalitions in sixteen eastern Kentucky counties in order to understand how the coalitions institutionalize cancer prevention discourse. I argue that they are reconstructing Appalachian identity in line with current tendencies in neoliberalism economic policy. Cancer prevention discourse has become an important element in the identity of the region, offering a horizon of meaning about “nature, culture and people that are used in the discourses and classifications of science, politics, cultural activism, regional marketing, governance and political or religious regionalization” (Paasi, 2003) to distinguish the Appalachian region from other regions of the country. At the level of regional consciousness, the idea of cancer survivor has become an identity available to those who have endured cancer treatments. The question as to whether “survivor” still marks any of the original attributes that were evident in the Women’s Health of the 1970s is taken up here as well. Identifying local coalitions as “community-based” and “grassroots” suggests one chain of equivalences that re-identify populations at risk for cancer in the region as worthy of subsidized financial support for their medical issues. By describing coalitions this way, they become part of a tradition of using “discourses of uplift” in Appalachia in an attempt to bring indigenous populations in line with Modernist development projects (Billings, 2000).
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
George F. Bills, PhD is currently teaching at Bluegrass Community and Technical College. He lives with his family in Frankfort, KY.
Cancer Prevention as a Regional Social Problem: The Discourse of “Grassroots” Participation
Corbly Hall 106
This paper presents research which examines cancer prevention in eastern Kentucky not only as a medical problem, but also as a social problem. I use social network analysis to visualize the extent of connection among cancer prevention coalitions in sixteen eastern Kentucky counties in order to understand how the coalitions institutionalize cancer prevention discourse. I argue that they are reconstructing Appalachian identity in line with current tendencies in neoliberalism economic policy. Cancer prevention discourse has become an important element in the identity of the region, offering a horizon of meaning about “nature, culture and people that are used in the discourses and classifications of science, politics, cultural activism, regional marketing, governance and political or religious regionalization” (Paasi, 2003) to distinguish the Appalachian region from other regions of the country. At the level of regional consciousness, the idea of cancer survivor has become an identity available to those who have endured cancer treatments. The question as to whether “survivor” still marks any of the original attributes that were evident in the Women’s Health of the 1970s is taken up here as well. Identifying local coalitions as “community-based” and “grassroots” suggests one chain of equivalences that re-identify populations at risk for cancer in the region as worthy of subsidized financial support for their medical issues. By describing coalitions this way, they become part of a tradition of using “discourses of uplift” in Appalachia in an attempt to bring indigenous populations in line with Modernist development projects (Billings, 2000).
