Chinese Medicine and Medical Pluralism in Dar es Salaam

Globalisation or Glocalisation

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4445147
AutoresMichael Jennings (0000-0001-8619-2178, University of Wales, Swansea, UK), Michael R Jennings (0000-0003-3270-0805, Swansea University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2005
Volumen19
Número4
Páginas457-473
Fecha de publicación2005-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInternational Relations (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0047-1178 • E-ISSN: 1741-2862
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0047117805058535
OpenAlexW2069213673
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas9

African healing systems have always been pluralistic in form and structure, capable of absorbing new traditions and practices. The spread of Chinese medicine in Tanzania over the past decade is a testament to the flexibility of pluralistic healing systems, as well as evidence of south-south processes of globalisation that are often ignored by the literature on globalisation. This article suggests, through a study of a Chinese medical clinic in Dar es Salaam, that its popularity highlights the strengths of local cultures despite increasing globalising forces, and that any consideration of globalisation must include south-south (or East-south) dynamics as well as the customary focus on the north-south track. The article also suggests that whilst the absorption of new traditions of healing speaks to the strength of the local, it also functions as an indication of the failure of alternative healing systems to address key current medical needs, and as such represents a crisis in health, as much as strength, in the healing sector

Dar es salaam · Development economics · Economic geography · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Globalization · Glocalization · Pluralism (philosophy) · Political economy · Political science · Popularity · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Tanzania · African cultural and philosophical studies · African history and culture analysis · Law · Medicine