Marginal to Mainstream
Marginal to Mainstream
CAD$60.95
Most users of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) approach it differently than physicians, because they employ informal knowledge, based on their experiences, beliefs, and values. Mary Ruggie stresses that, although physicians also use informal knowledge from their clinical experience to understand patients and their needs, they rely on formal knowledge, based on science, to understand medicine. Thus, if CAM is going to become a legitimate part of health care, physicians must insist that scientific research prove its safety and efficacy.
- It explains what CAM is from the standpoint of informal knowledge, based on experience, beliefs and values, and formal knowledge based on science
- Explains how research is legitimizing CAM in the eyes of physicians and facilitating its mainstreaming into health care
Reviews & endorsements
"[An] extremely comprehensive, detailed, and well-referenced look at the explosion of interest in CAM."
Annals of Internal Medicine
"A superb dissection ... the best sociological interpretation of [the] subject currently available."
American Journal of Sociology
Product details
February 2004Paperback
9780521542227
250 pages
226 × 151 × 16 mm
0.346kg
12 tables
Available
Table of Contents
- List of tables
- List of acronyms
- Preface
- 1. Introducing CAM and the many questions it raises
- 2. Understanding CAM: the problem of knowledge and the power of words
- 3. The growth of CAM: patterns of use and meaning
- 4. Physicians: learning new ways
- 5. Medical research: science and interpretation
- 6. Investigating CAM: the devil in the details
- 7. The road ahead: accommodation or integration?
- Notes
- Bibliography.
