Skip to search boxSkip to navigationSkip to main content

Towards the glocalisation of complementary and alternative medicine: homeopathy, acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine practice and regulation in Brazil and Portugal

  • Universidade Estadual de Campinas
Research Output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding Chapter Peer-review

Abstract

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has been presented in the sociological literature as a global phenomenon. Yet CAM has simultaneously been shaped by different ‘civic epistemologies’, or national cultures, and re-embedded into local contexts. This ‘glocalism’ of CAM, in turn, is a result of intercultural exchanges over time. This chapter compares CAM practice and regulation in two countries with a long-standing relationship—Brazil and Portugal. Homeopathy, acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine have been chosen as case studies. We show how Brazil and Portugal, despite their participation in CAM’s global culture, have presented differing national projects on the subject, as well as how these projects have resulted from intercultural hybridism over time. This chapter highlights the glocalism and interculturalism of CAM, a perspective largely absent from its sociological analysis to date.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding Chapter Peer-review

Original language

English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 113-137

Publication milestones

  • Published - 27/03/2018

Publication status

Published - 27/03/2018

Publisher

Palgrave Macmillan Ltd., United States, United Kingdom

Publication series

  • Publication series name: Health, Technology and Society

ISBN (Print)

9783319739380

ISBN (Electronic)

9783319739397

External Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/622574

Host publication title

Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Knowledge Production and Social Transformation

Host publication editors

  • Caragh Brosnan
  • Pia Vuolanto
  • Jenny-Ann Brodin Danell

Access to documents

Publication metrics