Social Science Studies of CAM and IM

[This is a draft of a proposal for the next SIG meeting. Please feel free to comment.]

This proposal is based on the “Take a Stand” model used by the Critical Anthropology for Global Health SIG: http://www.medanthro.net/research/cah/blogtest.html. (At this site there are links to a more detailed explanation of the process as well as examples of the work done by the CAGH SIG.)

I propose that the SSCAM-IM Special Interest Group (SIG) create a task force to explore a topic of interest to our SIG and the broader SMA/AAA membership and to ‘Take a Stand’ on the ways medical anthropology can contribute to the public discussion of the issue.

According to the SSCAM-IM Statement of Purpose (at http://socscicamim.net/?q=node/6), this SIG was “organized to encourage the anthropological study of CAM and IM as emergent socio-medical phenomena having global ramifications in the 21^st century”. In other words, we are interested in how processes of “globalization and hybridization, scientization and commodification” affect pluralistic healthcare in local settings. The power relations between dominant medical systems (often biomedicine) and alternative healing systems are central to this topic. A central arena in which these power relations are articulated and negotiated is in the evaluation of efficacy and effectiveness (including the characterization of what constitutes viable ‘evidence’). I suggest that this is a fruitful *first* topic for exploration by an SSCAM-IM task force, and a topic that would be of interest and value to the broader SMA and AAA membership. Future topics would be suggested and developed down the road.

This is a brief summary of the process (which should take 1-2 years total):

1. Form an Ad-Hoc committee (4-5 people) to explore a topic of concern to this SIG.
2. Ad-Hoc committee members will contribute to building a resource list and developing a brief of the topic. This brief is intended to inform the community about multiple positions of the topic at hand. (Annotated bibliographies should circulate among Ad-Hoc committee members to allow for the development of this brief and resource list.)
3. Send brief and resource list to SIG members, post to listserve, and present at the SIG meeting during the SMA or AAA meeting for review, comment, critique, and deliberation by SIG members (and others). This brief is not intended to be a consensus statement – especially at this point – but a topic for the SIG members (and others) to review, comment, critique, and deliberate.
4. Create a forum to engage and educate a broader audience on the topic, including a forum/panel at the AAA or SMA/SfAA meetings and a short publication presenting an overview and a guide to future research priorities on the topic.
5. This process should be on-going to explore topics of interest to the SIG and broader SMA/AAA membership.

(Please read Mark Nichter’s description of the “Take a Stand” process at http://www.medanthro.net/research/cah/caghstand.html.)