In pursuit of health
Pragmatic acculturation in everyday life
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3664465 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Stella R Quah (0000-0003-4564-833X, National University of Singapore, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 419-422 |
| Publication date | 2008-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Health Sociology Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1446-1242 • E-ISSN: 1839-3551 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.5172/hesr.451.17.4.419 |
| OpenAlex | W2094371051 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 5 |
When disease strikes the most immediate reaction is to seek a solution: How to stop this? How to get well again? Then comes the intriguing part: How did I get this problem, and why me? Research findings in medical sociology and anthropology over the past five to six decades show these to be virtually primordial questions, irrespective of geographical location, lifestyle, and ethnic, religious, linguistic or other background. While the questions tend to be the same, the answers vary widely, as they are fashioned precisely by people's location, way of life, socio-cultural, religious, linguistic, and other differences. More importantly, amidst the rainbows of healing options and solutions, one trend predominates: people do cross cultural boundaries in search of a cure or in their quest for the proverbial fountain of youth. Conceptually, this phenomenon is pragmatic acculturation, that is, the borrowing of ideas, ways of thinking or ways of doing things from a culture that is not your own, for the purpose of solving a particular problem. As the borrower, you choose procedures or remedies you consider helpful in solving your problem without necessarily adopting the conceptual paradigm or cosmology of the healing system from which you are borrowing (Quah 2005).Five interrelated premises are particularly relevant to the sociological analysis of people's pursuit of health across healing systems:* First, pragmatic acculturation as defined above is common, normal behaviour in everyday life, everywhere.* Second, given the commonness of pragmatic acculturation, the most adequate research designs for the study of trends in the use and provision of healing options involve multicultural samples and cross-national comparisons.* Third, countries with homogenous or singlesystem healthcare are becoming the exception rather than the rule. Trade globalisation and large waves of immigration promoting the growth of ethnic diasporas around the world have transformed the market of healing services in most countries: today you find a wide range of options along a continuum of scientific sophistication from biomedicine to quasiscientific or mock 'biomedical' options, to traditional healing practices and remedies from ancient healing systems such Chinese, Indian, and Arabic traditions, to less systematic and multihued folk and tribal beliefs and healing rituals.* Fourth, given this wide and complex array of alternatives, sociological research on healing options and people's choices requires clarity of concepts and analytical tools that can identify trends while reflecting the rich variations in agency and structure.* And fifth, pragmatic acculturation is observed at the macro-level involving healing systems and structures, as well as at the micro-level involving agency among healthcare users and providers.The first three premises or arguments (that crossing cultural borders in search of healing is part of our daily life; that to identify meaningful trends sociologists should address not only local but also international or global trends; and that the practice of pragmatic acculturation is facilitated by the wide variety of healing options available in most societies today) do not require much elaboration as they are amply documented by medical sociology research over the past three decades1 and by findings reported in most of the articles in this issue. But more attention must be given to the fourth and fifth arguments: the need for suitable analytical tools and the importance of identifying differences, similarities and trends at four distinct levels of analysis: at the macro-level, bio-medical and non-biomedical healing systems; and at the micro-level, the users and providers of healing services.The conceptual challengeRegarding the fourth argument on analytical tools to study social phenomena, the first requirement is clarity of concepts. It is unfortunate that the discussion of healing options in the social science literature has incorporated terms from the mass media and introduced new labels without rigorous scrutiny of their meaning and consistency
Acculturation · Aesthetics · Epistemology · Ethnic group · Everyday life · Phenomenon · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Cultural Competency in Health Care · Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology · Obesity and Health Practices · Psychology · Social Psychology
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,38 |
| Citation span | 2010 - 2026 (17) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |