Where Movements Matter: Examining Unintended Consequences of the Pain Management Movement Across Institutional Fields

• In Event: 106 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 15. Social Movement Outcomes

Abstract

Most research on social movement consequences overlooks professional fields as targets of change and examines only a single institutional field. This research focuses on the unintended consequences of social movements across professional fields, asking how activism aimed at one field affects other, adjacent fields. The influence of social movements on interrelated professional fields is evident through the pain management movement whose efforts to combat pain and de-stigmatize opioid use have resulted in significant professional, legal, and cultural change. Using case study methods, I draw on newspaper articles, organizational documents, and scholarly literature to trace key moments in the history of U.S. narcotics control and the pain management movement from the early twentieth century to today. Findings demonstrate how the movement mobilized and allied with pharmaceutical companies to alter the legal and regulatory environment of opioid prescribing, achieving several markers of social movement “success.” However, they also unveil the movement’s unintended consequences in healthcare, criminal justice, and public health including the contemporary opioid and heroin crises. This article concludes with a discussion of the unintended consequences of social movements that centers on how mobilization affects professional work in both focal and adjacent fields.

Author

• Elizabeth Chiarello, Saint Louis University