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Introduction

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Life in Pain

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Abstract

This book explores pain in a number of ways. At the heart of the book is an extension of Melzack’s neuromatrix theory of pain into social, cultural, and economic fields, where specific constellations of disparate institutions, flows of capital, encounters, and social and economic structures, provide a framework for the formation of pain, its perception, experience, meaning, and cultural production. Complementing the extended neuromatrix is a second theory, which focuses on the propensity of western market capitalism to seek out new areas of life to subsume to capital. Pain is one such life area that is now ripe for exploitation. Although the book has theory at its heart, it draws on case studies, which are used to illustrate theory, and to identify the contradictions and complexities. The case studies are drawn from accounts of drug use in varied contexts such as global methamphetamine use, oxycodone use in North America, and the global rise of the medicinal cannabis marketplace.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia

    John L. Fitzgerald

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Fitzgerald, J.L. (2020). Introduction. In: Life in Pain. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5640-6_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5640-6_1

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