The alternativisation of healthcare: A sociological framework for analysis

Abstract

The use of alternative medicine (AM) outside mainstream healthcare has witnessed an increasing upsurge across western societies in recent decades. The theoretical tool articulated to capture this growing uptake of AM coalesced around the framework of alternativisation. Drawing from the perspectives in medical sociology, this article maps out the dimensions through which alternativisation and the expansion of AM in society. The key questions of what is alternativisation, how useful is alternativisation as a sociological concept, what is the nexus between alternativisation, medicalisation and pharmaceutisation and what are the future sociological agendas in this new domain are addressed in this article. It is posited that alternativisation occurs in society because AM practitioners contest therapeutic space with orthodox medical professionals and pharmaceutical companies and further extend their sphere of competence and expertise to the production of medicinal products for every day and personal problems that are outside the purview of medicalisation and pharmaceutisation. The article concludes by fleshing out empirical issues that are likely to impact the domain of AM as a form of healthcare and enriches the conceptual value of alternativisation in future sociological research.

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