School of Social and Political Sciences - Research Publications

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    The Australian Dominative Medical System: A Reflection of Social Relations in the Larger Society
    Baer, H (WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC, 2008-12)
    This paper posits a working or tentative model of medical pluralism, a pattern in which multiple medical sub‐systems co‐exist, or what I term the Australian dominative medical system. I argue that whereas the Australian medical system with its various medical sub‐systems was pluralistic, that is more or less on an equal footing, in the nineteenth century, by the early twentieth century it became a plural or dominative one in the sense that biomedicine came to clearly dominate other medical sub‐systems. This paper also explores the growing interest of biomedicine and the Australian Government in complementary medicine to which Australians have increasingly turned over the course of the past three decades or so.
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    The drive for legitimation in Australian naturopathy: Successes and dilemmas
    Baer, HA (PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, 2006-10)
    Whereas naturopathic physicians have either "licensure" or state-mandated "registration" in 13 US states and four Canadian provinces, naturopaths in Australia have thus far failed to obtain "statutory registration" in any political jurisdiction, despite the fact that chiropractors and osteopaths have done so in all Australian states and territories, and acupuncturists and Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners have done so in the state of Victoria. Ironically, naturopathy and various other complementary medical systems are taught in many public tertiary institutions. This essay presents an overview of the development and the current socio-political status of naturopathy in Australia and its redefinition in some contexts as "natural therapies" and "natural medicine" or even as the major component of complementary medicine. It also examines reasons why the Australian state has come to express an interest in naturopathy along with other complementary medical systems.