Transnational medical spaces: opportunities and restrictions
by Giulia Zanini, Roberta Raffaetà, Kristine Krause and Gabriele Alex
Working Papers WP 13-16
October 2013
ISSN 2192-2357 (MMG Working Papers Print)
Full text: pdf
Abstract:
How can we understand health-seeking behaviour, if the space in which this behaviour takes place stretches across borders? Is there more happening than just the increase in options? Based on examples from research on reproductive travels, medical remittances, the circulation of medicines in migrants’ personal networks, and the revitalisation of local healing traditions through globally active NGOs, in this working paper we attempt to elaborate upon medical practices and therapeutic itineraries in a transnational framework. By looking at how people take advantage of different regulations and procedures in different national frameworks, we propose to think along the lines of therapeutic opportunity structures in order to bring in spatial theory as well as draw attention to new forms of exclusion and agency.