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Actor-Network Theory and the regulatory governance of nicotine in the United Kingdom: how nicotine gum came to be a medicine, but not a drug

Rooke, C., Cloatre, Emilie, Dingwall, Robert (2012) Actor-Network Theory and the regulatory governance of nicotine in the United Kingdom: how nicotine gum came to be a medicine, but not a drug. Journal of Law and Society, 39 (1). pp. 39-57. ISSN 0263-323X. (doi:10.1111/j.1467-6478.2012.00569.x) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:29775)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6478.2012.00569.x

Abstract

This article explores the utility of actor-network theory (ANT) as a tool for socio-legal research. ANT is deployed in a study of the evolution of divided regulatory responsibility for tobacco and medicinal nicotine (MN) products in the United Kingdom, with a particular focus on how the latter came to be regulated as a medicine. We examine the regulatory decisions taken in the United Kingdom in respect of the first MN product: a nicotine-containing gum developed in Sweden, which became available in the United Kingdom in 1980 as a prescription-only medicine under the Medicines Act 1968. We propose that utilizing ANT to explore the development of nicotine gum and the regulatory decisions taken about it places these decisions into the wider context of ideas about tobacco control and addiction, and helps us to understand better how different material actors acted in different networks, leading to very different systems of regulation.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1111/j.1467-6478.2012.00569.x
Uncontrolled keywords: ACTOR-NETWORK; CONVERSATION; SMOKING
Subjects: K Law
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > Kent Law School
Depositing User: Sarah Slowe
Date Deposited: 04 Jul 2012 08:28 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:07 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/29775 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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