The Social Production of Crisis: Blood, Politics, and Death in France and the United States

In the early 1980s, toxic blood contaminated with HIV infected hemophiliacs and blood transfusion recipients. The French public's discovery of this catastrophe in the early 1990s created a transformative political crisis, while it went unnoticed in the United States. This book explores the history and organization of blood as a consumer product in France and the United States, raising questions about the immunity to human suffering, the weakness of civil society, and alternative epidemic trajectories.

Format: Hardback
Length: 248 pages
Publication date: 12 May 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

In the early 1980s, a significant health crisis emerged when nearly half of hemophiliacs and a substantial number of blood transfusion recipients became infected with toxic blood contaminated with HIV. This calamity went largely unnoticed amidst the broader AIDS drama. However, when the French public learned about this tragedy in the early 1990s, it sparked a transformative political crisis that had far-reaching consequences. On the other hand, the same discovery in the United States received relatively limited attention.

In their book "The Social Production of Crisis," Constance A. Nathanson and Henri Bergeron delve into a deeply concerning narrative to present a comprehensive case comparative analysis of the catastrophe, its various retrospective interpretations, and its intimate connection to the history and organization of blood as a consumer product in both countries. Drawing on secondary sources, archival research, and interviews with key players, they provide a historical, political, and social reconstruction of the HIV contamination of the blood supply to answer the question of how and why this disease morphed into a crisis in France but not in the United States. The authors also raise thought-provoking questions about the peculiar immunity to human suffering as a policy engine in the United States, the often-repeated weakness of civil society in France, and the exploration of alternative epidemic trajectories.

Through the investigation of a series of morally shocking events, this book develops a sociological theory of how political crises are socially produced, raising important questions about disease policy and politics in the United States and France. It sheds light on the complex dynamics and factors that contribute to the emergence and management of health crises, emphasizing the need for robust governance, effective communication, and compassionate responses to such emergencies.

Weight: 514g
Dimension: 163 x 244 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780197682487