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The production of sociological knowledge in Australian universities is explored through an empirical study of research papers published in a selection of academic outlets between 1960 and 2011. Drawing on theories concerning scholarly practices, institutional formation and the sociology of knowledge, questions are posed about the factors that shape and structure the production of sociological knowledge about health and medicine. The concept of intellectual schools is examined, with evidence sought for the presence of these 'knowledge networks' in the Australian context. The study suggests the formation and maintenance of schools are subject to structural factors within the university sector, specifically the relative wealth and prestige of the university and the dictates of the higher education market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is increasing pressure on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to follow the evidence-based approach promoted in allied health and medicine, in which the randomised control trial represents the evidence gold standard. However, many CAM advocates see these methods as undermining the holism of CAM practice. This paper explores how such tensions are managed in CAM university departments – settings in which particular forms of knowledge and evidence are given 'official' imprimatur by CAM educators and researchers. By comparing two types of CAM, the paper also unpacks differences within this broad category, asking whether CAM academic disciplines comprise different 'epistemic cultures' (Knorr-Cetina, K. (1999). Epistemic cultures: How the sciences make knowledge. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press). Interviews were conducted with 20 lecturers in Chinese medicine and osteopathy, across five Australian universities, and augmented with observation in two degree programs. Findings reveal contrasting ontological and epistemological perspectives between the two academic fields. Chinese medicine lecturers had largely adopted bioscientific models of research, typically conducting laboratory work and trials, although teaching included traditional theories. Osteopathy academics were more critical of dominant approaches and were focused on reframing notions of evidence to account for experiences, with some advocating qualitative research. The study illustrates CAM's 'epistemic disunity' while also highlighting the particular challenges facing academic CAM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The branding of ayurveda as a market strategy for the health consumer has become an important factor in the creation of 'New Age orientalist desire'. Using Vedic Village as a case, this paper shows how new age orientalism has been spread in modern India to middle class professionals, entrepreneurs and overseas health tourists. With this representation, ayurveda has become a wellness therapy instead of a means to restore health, and affluent people can now buy a package of 'ayurvedic healthy life' without changing their lifestyles. In addition to Euro-American health tourists, emerging middle class professionals and entrepreneurs in modern India have also become an integral part of the process of 'new age orientalization'. This paper concludes that the commodijied version of ayurveda, which has been developed in the West as part of 'wellness and spa culture', has become popular among the affluent middle class in India and abroad today, and through this the West has claimed and justifies authority over Eastern medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a study of the specialist field of the sociology of health and medicine, and examines its institutional development in Australia. A thesis is developed about the relationship between the field and the parent discipline of sociology. The formation of the discipline and the specialist field are proposed to have occurred in stages: the formative years, a period of inter-disciplinarity and collaboration, a stage of intensification and organisation, the years of institutional growth and specialisation, the decade of consolidation and fragmentation, and, its most recent phase, a time of 'new' internationalisation. Moreover, the institutionalisation of the sociology of health and medicine has closely followed the developmental trajectory of its parent discipline, even though its disciplinary boundaries have been, and continue to be, less rigid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health researchers in a number of settings are expressing concern about the 'gap' between what we 'know' about the social determinants of health and of health inequalities, and the lack of action based upon this 'knowledge'. Indeed, the 'know-do gap' has become almost a mantra echoed across international and some national institutional sites. This paper examines how the 'problem' of the 'gap' is understood and represented in dominant and sub-dominant conceptualisations. It highlights what is missing from these representations: adequate reflection on changing modes of governance of research management. Where once there was a degree of separation between research production and government policy, increasingly there is congruence between these governmental functions. This congruence means that the problem we face today is not a 'gap' but rather a 'fit' between what we 'know' and what we (don't) do regarding SDH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this analytic review, the authors consider the 'boom' in demand for the services of practitioners of modalities of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). The evidence for the increase in demand for these services is reviewed and explanations for this phenomenon considered and evaluated. Two particular explanations are considered: the postmodern thesis and the gendered spirituality thesis, as well as more general changes in society. Finally the paper considers the role of the social sciences in the legitimation and increasing use of CAM. The paper concludes that the trend is likely to continue, as will the role of social scientists in observing and documenting CAM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the primarily sociological and anthropological literature that discusses the current challenges posed by the 'modernisation' of herbal knowledge through its co-option by biomedicine. Through this examination we identify evidence for a trend which suggests this co-option is a tactical strategy to preserve biomedical dominance through control of the knowledge base of 'other' medicines. Having identified such a trend, we examine the invention of the term 'complementary and alternative medicine' (CAM), suggesting that the universalising of non-orthodox health care practices under this construct is a problematic symptom of biomedical co-option. We then go on to argue that a possible outcome of biomedical co-option is an epistemological bifurcation between 'traditionally' orientated and 'biomedically' informed herbal knowledge and practice, a phenomenon whose implications demand serious recognition and analysis, not only in the academic literature, but also in wider public debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The purpose of this research was to explore the phenomenon of the emergence of ethno-medical organisations among traditional healers from the late twentieth century. A case study was carried out on the Bolivian organisation Kallawayas sin Fronteras (KASFRO). According to the findings, KASFRO has been founded to demand formal recognition and inclusion in the national health system. Following historical discrimination against traditional medical heritage and the supremacy of the allopathic medical system, new trends of worldwide legitimisation of indigenous people's rights, as well as the worldwide acceptance of non- Western medical systems, were identified as crucial factors in the emergence of KASFRO. As a civil society organisation, KASFRO has been found to be a platform of social capital development which enables both, bonding within the Kallawaya community as well as with other traditional healer organisations (THO's), and bridging with governmental entities, which eventually led to the recognition of traditional doctors as professionals in Bolivia. These findings corroborate the roles of nongovernmental and nonprofit organisations as agents of political and social change, serving the preservation of medical ancestral cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Choice and control for birthing women have recently come under the global spotlight as a human rights issue, and are likely to remain so while midwives are being targetted for providing home birth care. While focussing on these issues appears to further widen the dichotomy between medicine and midwifery, understanding how this divide is maintained is necessary if we are to move beyond it. This article, utilising Foucault's theory of genealogy, recapitulates how midwifery knowledge came to be subjugated by a dominant medical discourse, particularly through the process of hospitalising birth. The submission of the Australian Medical Association to a government enquiry into maternity services is then examined to illustrate how discourse is perpetuated, and how medicine still configures itself as the dominant birth discourse in Australia. The importance of focussing on midwifery specific knowledge, using the notion of embodiment, is put forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ideal of combining biomedicine with traditional, complementary and/or alternative medicine (CAM) is now widespread in global healthcare systems. Called integrative medicine (IM) or integrative healthcare (IHC), biomedicine and CAM are being combined in myriad healthcare settings; select medical curricula are incorporating CAM while new ‘integrative’ physicians are graduating; and widescale health policy on CAM is being created by such organisations as the World Health Organization (WHO). While the IM trend is fast developing, little theory has been applied to examining the epistemology of this new health phenomenon and if, in fact, integration between divergent health paradigms is possible. Drawing on an anti-colonial analysis of new IM settings in Canada, we suggest that fundamental challenges exist to integrating biomedicine and CAM that have been largely ignored in the push for integration. They are: (a) the devaluing of non-biomedical health knowledges; (b) accepting only biomedical evidence; and (c) the creation of a biomedical monolithic worldview. As a part of paradigm appropriation and assimilation, we trace these challenges to the colonial devaluation of Indigenous knowledge. We argue that an anti-colonial analysis of IM provides the ‘missing link’ to understanding the fundamental processes through which biomedicine appropriates CAM, and the reasons it continues to do so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authority relationship between medicine and the allied health professions has been conceptualised as one of subordination. The research that underpinned the subordination thesis was largely based on pre-1980 studies of inter-professional interaction and struggle. This article presents data from a comparative longitudinal case study analysis of Australian allied health professions employed in three distinct organisational models in urban acute care general hospitals during the 1990s. The article discusses the emergence of a distinct allied health 'profession community' subculture associated with the emergence of new organisational structures in Australia. A model to account for subculture development under different organisational conditions is proposed. A key concern is the way in which a 'profession community' is created, structured and maintained in the complex organisational settings of the acute-care hospital. The findings challenge the notion that subordination is an inevitable consequence of medical dominance and calls for a re-formulation of our understanding of the relationship between medicine and allied health professions in light of contemporary health service reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]