Positive Health Online

Abstract

MIZRACHI and SHUVAL, The Gershon H. Gordon Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, P.O.B. 39040, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel, nissimm@post.tau.ac.il, have investigated the mechanisms by which conventional scientific medicine absorbs complementary and alternative medicine.

Background

This study examines the strategies of conventional medicine in response to the growing public demand for alternative medicine by comparing formal and informal claims for jurisdiction.

Methodology

The analysis is based on two main sources of data from Israel: (a) two formal position statements, and (b) a series of participant observations and interviews with practitioners in clinical settings where biomedical and alternative practitioners collaborate.

Results

At the formal level, the biomedical discourse seeks to secure its dominant position by drawing strict cognitive and moral lines differentiating "proper biomedicine" from "improper alternative medicine." At this level alternative medicine appears morally "contaminated" and its knowledge-base delegitimized by extreme forms of boundary-work. At the informal level, the contour of boundaries change. In the hospital field where alternative and biomedical practitioners are collaborating, mutual respect was expressed even as social and symbolic boundaries were being demarcated.

Conclusion

Modifying the forms of boundaries appears to be biomedicine's reactive strategy to changing environmental and market demands. It is a strategy that allows biomedical discourse to absorb its competitor within its professional jurisdiction with no battle, while retaining absolute epistemological hegemony and institutional control.

References

Mizrachi N, Shuval JT. Between formal and enacted policy: changing the contours of boundaries. Social Science & Medicine 60 (7): 1649-60, Apr 2005.