Negotiating differences. Analysis of constructions of therapeutic “alternative” identity in Buenos Aires health field

Authors

  • MARIANA BORDES CONICET e Universidad de Buenos Aires

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5216/sec.v12i2.7008

Keywords:

alternatives therapies, collective identities, Laclau, Buenos Aires

Abstract

On this article the author presents some conceptual elements for the analysis of alternatives therapies, usually related to the New Age movement, focusing on the idea of health field and the construction of collective identities. Concerning this last aim, the text introduce the theory of hegemony developed by Ernesto Laclau, in order to explore how alternative identities are built through operations of equivalence, reconversion and exclusion of some ‘signifiers’ that belong to the discursive formations of different medical approaches. The author reaches to the conclusion that the flexible characteristics of this identity option, allow the development of distinctive legitimating strategies for the specialists. This is a key to tackle the identity heterogeneity of this symbolic universe. At the same time, this “flexibility” presents the analytical field to discuss the potential that alternative identities have to subvert or reproduce the dominant logic impose, in the health field, by the biomedicine or scientific medicine.

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Author Biography

MARIANA BORDES, CONICET e Universidad de Buenos Aires

Doutoranda em Ciências Sociais (Universidad de Buenos Aires).
Membro Investigador do Centro Argentino de Etnologia Americana - CONICET
e do Instituto de Investigações Gino Germani (UBA).
Professora da UBA.
Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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Published

2010-03-18

How to Cite

BORDES, M. Negotiating differences. Analysis of constructions of therapeutic “alternative” identity in Buenos Aires health field. Sociedade e Cultura, Goiânia, v. 12, n. 2, p. 343–354, 2010. DOI: 10.5216/sec.v12i2.7008. Disponível em: https://revistas.ufg.br/fcs/article/view/7008. Acesso em: 19 may. 2024.

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 2 (2009)

Section

Free Articles

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