Paper short abstract:

Based on my current fieldwork in Prostate and Breast Cancer Support Groups and taking into account their biomedical underpinning I will describe the existent “negotiations” or “alliances” with biomedicine by looking closely into the question of power, gender and dominant model of survivorship.

Paper long abstract:

Proposed presentation is a part of the comparative study in two cancer support groups: Breast cancer support group (BCSG) and Prostate cancer support group (PCSG) in mid-sized town in Poland. Since February 2019 I’ve been investigating cancer remission narrative(s) (Frank 1995) on personal and collective level (“community narratives” Rappaport 1995), including extent to which members are embracing model(s) of survivorship supported by biomedicine, currently also when confronted with coronavirus pandemic. It’s beyond question, that biomedicine, as an institution of social control produces its own sort of knowledge and values, implemented during the course of illness and beyond, including model of recovery. On the other hand, those groups as literally embodying the illness experience, constitute some sort of the biosociality themselves, codifying own norms of survivorship (Burke 2005). My ongoing study shows that while both studied cancer groups remain somehow entangled with institutionalized health services (e.g. by renting the space within hospital facility and, above all, by providing voluntary work with and within biomedical realm) they have managed to espouse different agendas concerning model of activism and “dealing with” biomedicine. This peculiarity entails a wide range of knowledges and practices being exchanged and negotiated, empowered or downgraded by medical “ally”, (which may even lead to the question whether biomedicine has its own “gender”). Through analysis of interviews and observations I will discuss the "alliances" and “negotiations” with biomedical surveillance and theirs possible outcomes, being especially attentive to the questions of power, gender and dominant model of survivorship in those two groups.