TY - CHAP
T1 - Class and the clinic
T2 - the subject of medical pluralism and the transmission of inequality
AU - Ram, Kalpana
N1 - This book is a reporduction of South Asian History and Culture, Vol. 1, issue 2.
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - This article, based on ethnographic work in rural Tamil Nadu, explores the relative invisibility of class and its characteristic modes of operation in the literature on medical pluralism in India. Using, as key concepts, habit, comfort, pre-familiarity and familiarization, the article suggests that we can shift the way we think of 'pragmatism', the term that is routinely used to describe subjects who follow pluralist strategies. In reconceptualizing pragmatism, we can allow ourselves to glimpse anew the workings of class within pluralist strategies. The article takes inspiration from Gramsci's critique of the self-evidence of 'common sense', as well as from the phenomenological aspects of Bourdieu's understanding of class and
habitus. It explores the very different levels of comfort and authorization that different classes display in relation to biomedical spaces and practices, as well as towards nonbiomedical discursive practices.
AB - This article, based on ethnographic work in rural Tamil Nadu, explores the relative invisibility of class and its characteristic modes of operation in the literature on medical pluralism in India. Using, as key concepts, habit, comfort, pre-familiarity and familiarization, the article suggests that we can shift the way we think of 'pragmatism', the term that is routinely used to describe subjects who follow pluralist strategies. In reconceptualizing pragmatism, we can allow ourselves to glimpse anew the workings of class within pluralist strategies. The article takes inspiration from Gramsci's critique of the self-evidence of 'common sense', as well as from the phenomenological aspects of Bourdieu's understanding of class and
habitus. It explores the very different levels of comfort and authorization that different classes display in relation to biomedical spaces and practices, as well as towards nonbiomedical discursive practices.
M3 - Chapter
SN - 9780415556095
T3 - South Asian history and culture
SP - 7
EP - 20
BT - Health, culture and religion in South Asia
A2 - Assa Doron, null
A2 - Alex Broom, null
PB - Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group
CY - London
ER -