IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v63y2006i10p2617-2627.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How far can complementary and alternative medicine go? The case of chiropractic and homeopathy

Author

Listed:
  • Kelner, Merrijoy
  • Wellman, Beverly
  • Welsh, Sandy
  • Boon, Heather

Abstract

This paper examines the efforts of two complementary and alternative occupations, chiropractors and homeopaths, to move from the margins to the mainstream in health care in the province of Ontario. We use a variety of theoretical perspectives to understand how health occupations professionalize: the trait functionalist framework, social closure, the system of professions, and the concept of countervailing powers. The research traces the strategies that the leaders of the two groups are employing, as well as the resources they are able to marshal. These are analyzed within the context of the larger institutional and cultural environment. The data are derived from in-person interviews with 16 leaders (10 chiropractic and 6 homeopathic) identified through professional associations, teaching institutions and informants from the groups. The responses were analyzed with qualitative content analysis. We also used archival materials to document what the leaders were telling us. The data revealed four main strategies: (1) improving the quality of educational programs, (2) elevating standards of practice, (3) developing more peer reviewed research, and (4) increasing group cohesion. Although both groups identified similar strategies, the chiropractors were bolstered by more resources as well as state sanctioned regulation. The efforts of the homeopaths were constrained by scarce resources and the absence of self-regulation. In both cases the lack of strong structural support from government and the established health professions played an important role in limiting what was possible. In the future, it may be to the state's advantage to modify the overall shape of health care to include alternative paradigms of healing along with conventional medical care. Such a shift would put complementary and alternative medicine occupations in a better position to advance professionally and become formal elements of the established health care system.

Suggested Citation

  • Kelner, Merrijoy & Wellman, Beverly & Welsh, Sandy & Boon, Heather, 2006. "How far can complementary and alternative medicine go? The case of chiropractic and homeopathy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(10), pages 2617-2627, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:63:y:2006:i:10:p:2617-2627
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(06)00356-X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kelner, Merrijoy & Wellman, Beverly, 1997. "Health care and consumer choice: Medical and alternative therapies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 203-212, July.
    2. Cant, Sarah & Sharma, Ursula, 1996. "Demarcation and transformation within homoeopathic knowledge. A strategy of professionalization," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 579-588, February.
    3. Coburn, David & Biggs, C.Lesley, 1986. "Limits to medical dominance: The case of chiropractic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 22(10), pages 1035-1046, January.
    4. Barry, Christine Ann, 2006. "The role of evidence in alternative medicine: Contrasting biomedical and anthropological approaches," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(11), pages 2646-2657, June.
    5. Kelner, Merrijoy & Wellman, Beverly & Boon, Heather & Welsh, Sandy, 2004. "Responses of established healthcare to the professionalization of complementary and alternative medicine in Ontario," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 59(5), pages 915-930, September.
    6. Frank, R., 2002. "Homeopath & patient-a dyad of harmony?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 55(8), pages 1285-1296, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ijaz, Nadine, 2022. "The reluctant and the envious: Therapeutic subalternity and the practice of homeopathy in North America," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 311(C).
    2. Almeida, Joana & Gabe, Jonathan, 2016. "CAM within a field force of countervailing powers: The case of Portugal," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 73-81.
    3. Chung, Vincent C.H. & Hillier, Sheila & Lau, Chun Hong & Wong, Samuel Y.S. & Yeoh, Eng Kiong & Griffiths, Sian M., 2011. "Referral to and attitude towards traditional Chinese medicine amongst western medical doctors in postcolonial Hong Kong," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 247-255, January.
    4. Brosnan, Caragh, 2017. "Alternative futures: Fields, boundaries, and divergent professionalisation strategies within the Chiropractic profession," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 83-91.
    5. Patel, Gupteswar & Brosnan, Caragh & Taylor, Ann & Garimella, Surekha, 2021. "The dynamics of TCAM integration in the Indian public health system: Medical dominance, countervailing power and co-optation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 286(C).
    6. Cant, Sarah & Watts, Peter & Ruston, Annmarie, 2011. "Negotiating competency, professionalism and risk: The integration of complementary and alternative medicine by nurses and midwives in NHS hospitals," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(4), pages 529-536, February.
    7. Schupmann, Will, 2023. "“We are not the ethics police”: The professionalization of clinical ethicists and the regulation of medical decision-making," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 322(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chung, Vincent C.H. & Hillier, Sheila & Lau, Chun Hong & Wong, Samuel Y.S. & Yeoh, Eng Kiong & Griffiths, Sian M., 2011. "Referral to and attitude towards traditional Chinese medicine amongst western medical doctors in postcolonial Hong Kong," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 247-255, January.
    2. Scott, Clare & Walker, Jan & White, Peter & Lewith, George, 2011. "Forging convictions: The effects of active participation in a clinical trial," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(12), pages 2041-2048, June.
    3. Karolin Becker & Peter Zweifel, 2008. "Age and Choice in Health Insurance," The Patient: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research, Springer;International Academy of Health Preference Research, vol. 1(1), pages 27-40, January.
    4. Jaswant Guzder & Meenakshi Krishna, 2005. "Mind the Gap," Psychology and Developing Societies, , vol. 17(2), pages 121-138, September.
    5. Cartwright, Tina, 2007. "'Getting on with life': The experiences of older people using complementary health care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(8), pages 1692-1703, April.
    6. Villanueva-Russell, Yvonne, 2011. "Caught in the crosshairs: Identity and cultural authority within chiropractic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(11), pages 1826-1837, June.
    7. Fishman, Jennifer R. & Flatt, Michael A. & Settersten, Richard A., 2015. "Bioidentical hormones, menopausal women, and the lure of the “natural” in U.S. anti-aging medicine," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 79-87.
    8. Almeida, Joana & Gabe, Jonathan, 2016. "CAM within a field force of countervailing powers: The case of Portugal," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 73-81.
    9. Adams, Annmarie & Theodore, David & Goldenberg, Ellie & McLaren, Coralee & McKeever, Patricia, 2010. "Kids in the atrium: Comparing architectural intentions and children's experiences in a pediatric hospital lobby," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(5), pages 658-667, March.
    10. Deml, Michael J. & Notter, Julia & Kliem, Paulina & Buhl, Andrea & Huber, Benedikt M. & Pfeiffer, Constanze & Burton-Jeangros, Claudine & Tarr, Philip E., 2019. "“We treat humans, not herds!”: A qualitative study of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) providers’ individualized approaches to vaccination in Switzerland," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    11. Timmons, Edward & Hockenberry, Jason & Piette Durrance, Christine, 2016. "More Battles among Licensed Occupations: Estimating the Effects of Scope of Practice and Direct Access on the Chiropractic, Physical Therapist, and Physician Labor Market," Annals of Computational Economics, George Mason University, Mercatus Center, September.
    12. Singh, Jagdip & Cuttler, Leona & Silvers, J. B., 2004. "Toward understanding consumers' role in medical decisions for emerging treatments: Issues, framework and hypotheses," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 57(9), pages 1054-1065, September.
    13. Hök, Johanna & Wachtler, Caroline & Falkenberg, Torkel & Tishelman, Carol, 2007. "Using narrative analysis to understand the combined use of complementary therapies and bio-medically oriented health care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(8), pages 1642-1653, October.
    14. Villanueva-Russell, Yvonne, 2005. "Evidence-based medicine and its implications for the profession of chiropractic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 545-561, February.
    15. Chiu, Stephen W.K. & Ko, Lisanne S.F. & Lee, Rance P.L., 2005. "Decolonization and the movement for institutionalization of Chinese medicine in Hong Kong: a political process perspective," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(5), pages 1045-1058, September.
    16. Dodds, Sarah & Bulmer, Sandy & Murphy, Andrew, 2014. "Consumer value in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) health care services," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 218-229.
    17. Michael S. Goldstein, 2002. "The Emerging Socioeconomic and Political Support for Alternative Medicine in the United States," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 583(1), pages 44-63, September.
    18. Éva Rásky & Willibald-Julius Stronegger & Wolfgang Freidl, 1999. "Nutzung unkonventioneller Heilverfahren bei Krebserkrankungen," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 44(1), pages 22-29, January.
    19. Pedersen, Inge Kryger & Baarts, Charlotte, 2010. "'Fantastic hands' - But no evidence: The construction of expertise by users of CAM," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(6), pages 1068-1075, September.
    20. Tovey, P. & Broom, Alex, 2007. "Oncologists' and specialist cancer nurses' approaches to complementary and alternative medicine and their impact on patient action," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(12), pages 2550-2564, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:63:y:2006:i:10:p:2617-2627. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.