Strategies of complementary and alternative medicine practitioners to achieve occupational closure within healthcare in Portugal

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse the main strategies of closure that have been enacted by CAM practitioners in order to achieve occupational control over work domains in the Portuguese healthcare market since the late 1990s. Abbott’s jurisdictional vacancy theory, Neo-Weberian occupational closure theory, and Light’s countervailing power concept, are proposed as a framework for analysis. Acupuncture and homeopathy will be presented as case studies. Data are derived from in-depth interviews with 10 traditional acupuncturists and 10 traditional homeopaths. The data analysis suggested that expressing ‘countervailing values’, professionalising and forming alliances with the medical profession have been the main strategies used by CAM practitioners in an attempt to achieve inclusion and hence closure. It will be argued that a further outcome of these strategies is the promotion of CAM treatments and solutions to human problems, sometimes as complementary, other times as alternative, to medical solutions. The promotion of CAM can thus impact on the medicalisation process of certain conditions, and its sociological analysis can contribute to take the medicalisation debate towards unexplored theoretical grounds.