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“Embedded regulation:” The migration of objects, scripts, and governance

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  • Emilie Cloatre
  • Robert Dingwall

Abstract

This paper asks why an officially unregulated market in pharmaceuticals in a least developed country, Djibouti, behaves as if it were strictly regulated, with limited access to a small number of high‐cost drugs. We use Actor‐Network Theory (ANT) to show that the explanation is more complex than critics of the international pharmaceutical industry have supposed. Regulation and property rights generated in developed countries have become embedded in the drugs and “black boxed” to the point of invisibility. This has allowed them to travel to Djibouti with the drugs, while maintaining their effects in action. This case study develops our understanding of the way in which materials that are not designated as regulatory agents may still have regulatory impacts through their ability to enrol complex networks of actors, rules, values, and practices. Finally, it argues against the notion of law as a fixed and distinctive space for action, as opposed to the ANT vision of a fluid and contingent order, where law is part of a socio‐technico‐legal alliance that happens to achieve certain effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Emilie Cloatre & Robert Dingwall, 2013. "“Embedded regulation:” The migration of objects, scripts, and governance," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 7(3), pages 365-386, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:reggov:v:7:y:2013:i:3:p:365-386
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1748-5991.2012.01152.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    4. Sell,Susan K., 2003. "Private Power, Public Law," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521525398.
    5. Jean-Noël Kapferer, 1997. "Marque et médicaments : le poids de la marque dans la prescription médicale," Post-Print hal-00784104, HAL.
    6. Keith Sisson & Paul Marginson, 2001. "'Soft Regulation' - Travesty of the Real Thing or New Dimension?," One Europe or Several? Working Papers 32, One-Europe Programme.
    7. Braithwaite,John & Drahos,Peter, 2000. "Global Business Regulation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521784993.
    8. World Bank, 2012. "World Development Report 2012 [Rapport sur le développement dans le monde 2012]," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 4391, December.
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