'Fantastic hands' - But no evidence: The construction of expertise by users of CAM

Social Science & Medicine
Inge Kryger Pedersen, Charlotte Baarts

Abstract

Both in the Scandinavian welfare states and elsewhere the private CAM market acts as a health provider alongside the state. There is very limited established scientific evidence for the effects of treatments and often they are non-authorised. How, then, do users construct and attribute expertise to CAM practitioners? Drawing on 90 in-depth interviews with 30 Danish CAM users of reflexology or acupuncture, three aspects of expertise emerged from the empirical analysis of how the CAM users ascribe legitimacy to the therapies involved. Thus, expertise is: (i) embodied and produced by means other than those used in evidence-based knowledge or abstract expert systems; (ii) constructed by making a clear-cut division between the roles and responsibilities of the practitioner and the user; and (iii) constructed on the basis of specific training or education that practitioners have achieved. The expertise that the users seek and construct is not necessarily available, and users therefore consult many different kinds of experts. In doing so, they may themselves become the 'experts' in heterogeneous, context-specific dimensions of knowledge. In conclusion we propose further studies of what lay people can offer to a democratised and custom...Continue Reading

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Citations

May 9, 2012·The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine : Research on Paradigm, Practice, and Policy·Jeff Flatt
Sep 26, 2015·Sociology of Health & Illness·Inge Kryger PedersenKristina Grünenberg
Jul 25, 2015·Social Science & Medicine·Alyssa W Goldman, Benjamin Cornwell
Feb 6, 2015·BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine·Emery R EavesDaniel C Cherkin
Jun 1, 2016·Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine : ECAM·Michael ArmourCaroline A Smith
Oct 15, 2013·Qualitative Health Research·Lenore Manderson, Rachel Canaway
Dec 5, 2014·Public Understanding of Science·Sergi Cortiñas-RoviraEudald Escribà-Sales

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