Medicines in the grey market: A sociocultural analysis of individual agency

Abstract

In a re-regulated pharmaceutical market, coupled with increased digitalization of healthcare services, medicine consumption practices take on new forms. On the global scale, the trade in illicit medicines in the grey market is expanding, posing a serious threat to both individuals and society. Against this background, we discuss how people relate to medicines and medical authorities, and how knowledge is mobilized and embodied in the form of medicines. We use data from a digital survey and netnographic observation in Swedish chat forums. We observe the emergence of a network where knowledge from a variety of sources is collected and synthesized, produced and consumed. We also identify that people have turned themselves into skilled prosumers of knowledge and that individual agency is enacted in various ways.