Informal Healthcare in Contemporary Russia : Sociographic Essays on the Post-Soviet Infrastructure for Alternative Healing Practices / Yulia Krasheninnikova, Andreas Umland, Vasily Vlassov

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Krasheninnikova, Yulia, Author.

Contributor:

Umland, Andreas Dr., Editor.

Vlassov, Vasily, Author of introduction, etc.

Series:

Soviet and post-Soviet politics and society ; 1614-3515. 165.

Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society 165

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Russia.

Medicine.

health care.

Local Subjects:

Russia.

Medicine.

health care.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 281 pages).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Hannover ibidem 2017

Biography/History:

Yulia Krasheninnikova is an expert at the Laboratory for Local Administration of the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow and associate professor of Public Administration at the HSE Campus in Perm. She studied modern history and political science at Perm State University and at the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences. She holds a PhD (Candidate of Sciences) in History. Over the past nine years she has been conducting research in the field of public healthcare and has published academic papers on health policy, professional medical communities, and alternative health practices in Russia.

Summary:

This volume deals with one of the most understudied aspects of everyday life in Russian society. Its main heroes are the providers of goods and services to whom people turn for healthcare instead of official medical institutions. A wide range of agents is described—from network marketing companies to 'folk' journals on health as well as healers, complementary medicine specialists, and religious organizations. Krasheninnikova’s book is based on rich empirical observations and avoids both positive and critical assessment of the analyzed phenomena. Her investigation pays particular attention to the legal, social, and economic status of informal healthcare providers. She demonstrates that these agents tend to flourish in bigger towns rather than in small settlements, where public healthcare is lacking. The study reveals the important role of institutions that are generally not related to alternative medicine, such as pharmacies, libraries, and church shops. The result is a vivid and thorough introduction to the world of self-medication and alternative healing in contemporary Russia. A special emphasis was made on the flexibility of boundaries between formal and informal healthcare due to the evolution of rules and regulations.

“As the author remarkably demonstrates, informal healthcare of the Russian province is a vast universe of people with their social institutions and networks that paradoxically combine rational approaches with irrational beliefs in miraculous cures …“ —Alexander Nikulin, Director of the Center for Agrarian Studies, The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration

“The book provides conclusive evidence that the informal healthcare of provincial Russia, which successfully survives outside and between the market and the state, is one of the most flexible sectors of the informal economy and is extremely important for the majority of the Russian population.“ —Teodor Shanin, President, The Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences

“I read the book with a degree of horror. It dispels the myth that alternative medicine is a substitute for the conventional one: where there is no conventional medicine, there is none at all. The book demonstrates yet again that traditional medicine is increasingly becoming business-focused rather than folk-based. […] Moreover, informal techniques penetrate the formal healthcare system and merge with it. At the same time, although many practices involving breathing exercises, leech therapy, massage, etc. are not evidence-based, even I have nothing against them. In general, the book draws attention to numerous issues and highlights a maze of concerns that have to be dealt with. Measures to be adopted must not be purely restrictive; rather, they should be scientific and educational, in particular, based on telemedicine technology.“ —Pavel Vorobiev, Professor, Head of the Department of Hematology and Geriatrics, First Sechenov, Moscow State Medical University

“The book offers a fascinating account on the markets, agents, and infrastructures of informal health, which is defined as the diverse set of health-maintenance institutions and practices outside the scope of the formal health-care system. […] Krasheninnikova’s study offers a valuable contribution to our understanding of public health in contemporary Russia as well as of the country’s sociology of informal institutions and practices.” —The Russian Review (Vol. 77, No. 2), April 2018

“This approach is novel. It addresses an important void in the literature on CAM and other alternative forms of healing and healthcare that is generally unavailable. In this respect, Krasheninnikova has made an important contribution to the literature.” —Slavic Review, Spring 2019

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Foreword

Author's note

Acknowledgements

1 Goals and tools of informal healthcare sociography

1.1. Problem statement

1.2. Description model

1.3. "Informal healthcare" drivers

2 Agents in the markets for health products

2.1. "We are like Galileo-they burn us at the stake, but we continue promoting dietary supplements": Direct selling of health products

2.2. Latent functions of the healthcare institution: The case of pharmacies

2.3. Contemporary peddlers: Itinerant trade and peddling health products

3 Health from the garden, forest, and market: Procuring and selling gifts of nature

4 Shadow and respectable alternative medicine: From healers to "complementary" specialists

4.1. "People remember a certain Baba Vanga, so they will also remember me": Healers

4.2. Frontier zone: Ambivalent status, recognition problems and shadow practices of complementary and alternative medicine specialists

4.3. All diseases of the nerves: Psychotherapy as an alternative to orthodox medicine

5 Religious institutions: Health concerns and commerce on health problems

5.1. The attitude of religious organizations to conventional and alternative medicine

5.2. Treatment arsenal: Religious ceremonies, rituals, and practices to address health problems

5.3. Social service as a form of religions' participation in healthcare

5.4. Religious associations in the markets for health products

6 The "informal healthcare" framework: Information markets

6.1. Mass media

6.2. Information intermediaries

Afterword

Appendices

Appendix 1. Characteristics of the fieldwork in the Perm Territory

Appendix 2. The religious landscape in the field research area

References.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9783838209708

3838209702

Publisher Number:

9783838269702