The dynamic interplay between Western medicine and the complementary and alternative medicine movement: How activists perceive a range of responses from physicians and hospitals

Abstract

Scholars must examine the dynamic relationship between activists and organisational actors, because all social movements interact in some way with the institutions they seek to change, and because activists engage in ongoing attempts to shape these interactions. Using data from the complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) movement in California and hospitals in New York and Massachusetts, I identify how physicians and hospitals respond to the CAM movement, and how activists perceive each response. Using social movement and institutional theories, this study illustrates that social movements can penetrate and reshape formal organisations, because established organisations have permeable boundaries. Organisational responses to activism can take the form of avoidance, compromise, acquiescence, manipulation or defiance. Activists vary in their response to these outcomes, because activists are not unanimous in their goals. These outcomes result from continual negotiation between CAM activists and organisational actors, and within each group. Thus, the outcomes are constantly evolving.