Australia Chinese medicine has begun to receive significant attention in STS, where the hybrid, syncretic nature of Chinese medical knowledge and practice has been described, particularly in its relationship to biomedicine. Zhan (2009) has highlighted the ‘worlding’ of Chinese medicine (CM) as it is continually made and transformed through transnational encounters. This paper builds on this body of work by exploring the dynamics of CM’s ‘worlding’ in locations that have received little attention to date: university departments of Chinese medicine in Australia and the UK. Through interviews with 17 CM academics in these two countries, and observation of teaching in two CM degree programs, the paper examines the various forms that CM takes in these settings, including in relation to bioscience and processes of knowledge-production. Comparative analysis across different sites reveals some of the historical, political and structural factors that produce particular kinds of CM in particular times and places. Emerging among these factors are cooperative arrangements between Australian and UK researchers and universities and Chinese institutions - links that have proved beneficial to those involved, in the context of global flows of scientific and economic capital. Indeed, where the relationship with China is weaker, so seems to be the position of CM within the university. The paper sheds light on how academic CM in Australia and the UK is configured through both local university structures and wider transnational relationships. Session Organizer: Jenny-Ann Brodin Danell, Umeå university, Department of Sociology.
This is an abstract that was submitted to the 2018 4S Annual Conference held in Sydney, by Caragh Brosnan of University of Newcastle. It was presented in the session titled " Science and Technology Studies on Transnational Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)."
Caragh Brosnan, "Transnational Chinese Medicine: How Academic Chinese Medicine is Configured in Australian and UK Universities ", contributed by Parikshith Shashikumar, STS Infrastructures, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 20 January 2019, accessed 3 May 2024. https://stsinfrastructures.org/content/transnational-chinese-medicine-how-academic-chinese-medicine-configured-australian-and-uk
Critical Commentary
This is an abstract that was submitted to the 2018 4S Annual Conference held in Sydney, by Caragh Brosnan of University of Newcastle. It was presented in the session titled " Science and Technology Studies on Transnational Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)."
The abstract was selcted as it holds key topic of intreset to the contributor's research. Specfically to do with the co-constructive trasformations that take place between the polualr westren medical pedagoy and practice, and prevelet alternative or rather indiginous medical practices.