Alternative Medicine's Encounter with Laboratory Science The Scientific Construction of Korean Medicine in a Global Age

TitleAlternative Medicine's Encounter with Laboratory Science The Scientific Construction of Korean Medicine in a Global Age
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2007
AuthorsKim, Jongyoung
JournalSocial Studies of Science
Volume37
Issue6
Pagination855-880
ISSN0306-3127, 1460-3659
AbstractThrough ethnographic research at the Graduate School of East—West Medical Science (GSM) at Kyung Hee University in South Korea, this paper examines how a hybrid research team translates Korean medicine (KM) into scientific languages through the mobilization of laboratory science in a global knowledge-making field. Paying attention to the asymmetric power relationship between KM and science, I show that the richness and liveliness of KM is truncated as it enters the global scientific field. This lab study examines: (1) KM's double approach to local KM and global scientific fields; (2) the lab's political function in relation to biomedicine and science; and (3) the identity crisis and reconstruction of KM caused by its scientific translation.
URLhttp://sss.sagepub.com/content/37/6/855