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The Sociology of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and traditional medicine (TM) are important social phenomena. This article reviews the sociological literature on the topic. First, it addresses the question of terminology, arguing that the naming process is a glimpse into the complexities of power and h...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Gale, Nicola
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4146620/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25177359
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12182
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author Gale, Nicola
author_facet Gale, Nicola
author_sort Gale, Nicola
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description Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and traditional medicine (TM) are important social phenomena. This article reviews the sociological literature on the topic. First, it addresses the question of terminology, arguing that the naming process is a glimpse into the complexities of power and history that characterize the field. Second, focusing on the last 15 years of scholarship, it considers how sociological research on users and practitioners of TM/CAM has developed in that time. Third, it addresses two newer strands of work termed here the ‘big picture’ and the ‘big question’. The big picture includes concepts that offer interpretation of what is happening at a societal level to constrain and enable observed patterns of social practice (pluralism, integration, hybridity and activism). The big question, ‘Does it work?’, is one of epistemology and focuses on two developing fields of critical enquiry – first, social critiques of medical science knowledge production and, second, attempts to explain the nature of interventions, i.e. how they work. Finally, the article examines the role of sociology moving forward.
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spelling pubmed-41466202014-08-28 The Sociology of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine Gale, Nicola Sociol Compass Science & Medicine Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and traditional medicine (TM) are important social phenomena. This article reviews the sociological literature on the topic. First, it addresses the question of terminology, arguing that the naming process is a glimpse into the complexities of power and history that characterize the field. Second, focusing on the last 15 years of scholarship, it considers how sociological research on users and practitioners of TM/CAM has developed in that time. Third, it addresses two newer strands of work termed here the ‘big picture’ and the ‘big question’. The big picture includes concepts that offer interpretation of what is happening at a societal level to constrain and enable observed patterns of social practice (pluralism, integration, hybridity and activism). The big question, ‘Does it work?’, is one of epistemology and focuses on two developing fields of critical enquiry – first, social critiques of medical science knowledge production and, second, attempts to explain the nature of interventions, i.e. how they work. Finally, the article examines the role of sociology moving forward. Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2014-06 2014-06-19 /pmc/articles/PMC4146620/ /pubmed/25177359 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12182 Text en © 2014 The Author Sociology Compass Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Science & Medicine
Gale, Nicola
The Sociology of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine
title The Sociology of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine
title_full The Sociology of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine
title_fullStr The Sociology of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine
title_full_unstemmed The Sociology of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine
title_short The Sociology of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine
title_sort sociology of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine
topic Science & Medicine
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4146620/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25177359
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12182
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