Body Praxis and Networks of Power.
Departing from what has in medical anthropology been termed the individual body, the social body and body politics, actor-networks in medical pluralism are investigated on the basis of a study of complementary and alternative forms of medicine (CAM) in Denmark, including participant-observation in 12 clinics of reflexology, biopathy and kinesiology, as well as interviews and informal conversations with more than 40 alternative practitioners and 300 patients of CAM clinics. In this study, several actor-networks that connect metaphorical models of the body, clinical technology, social relations and political structures of the Danish society are revealed: a technocrat network, a social-democratic consultancy network and a neo-liberal network. The co-existence of several actor-networks has phenomenological as well as structural implications. The implications for patients using several forms of therapy is important insofar as the patients' move between different actor-networks of healing implies switches between different experiences of body and self. Each of the actor-networks at the same time implies different positions in relation to the public healthcare system, and some actor-networks appear to be more compatible than others with the generalized and technical properties of public healthcare.
Helle
H
Johannessen