From marginalisation to responsibilisation - on how the 'fringe' became the 'alternative'

Beskrivelse

Banning, excluding or limiting the medical practice of those deemed to be damaging rather than improving the health of individuals or populations has long been a strategy of public health protection, albeit highly contested. Yet in recent decades it seems the ways in which we think about and regulate quackery has been transformed. In this paper, I demonstrate how the recasting of ‘fringe’ and ‘marginal’ medicines into ‘complementary’ and ‘alternative’ medicines somewhere around the early 1970s, and the subsequent barrage of national hearings, public inquiries and committee investigations into their growing use have had a direct effect on contemporary efforts to protect the public from ‘dangerous and incompetent’ practitioners. Taking the example of herbal medicine in the United Kingdom and Vietnam, I argue that regulatory approaches towards alternative medicines have shifted from strategies of marginalisation to strategies of responsibilisation.

Periode	29 jun. 2005
Begivenhedstitel	Diversity and Debate in Alternative and Complementary Medicine
Begivenhedstype	Konference
Placering	Nottingham University, StorbritannienVis på kort