Habermas, Transnational Health Care and Cross-Culturalism

  • Tomas Mainil
  • Vincent Platenkamp
  • Herman Meulemans
Chapter

Abstract

The key arguments of this chapter are as follows:

  • Transnational health care (THC) is a futuristic, coordinated and professionalised provision of cross-border health care and medical tourism services. It is an emergent field (Lunt et al., 2011) full of many opportunities, but it also holds risks.

  • A conceptual basis is lacking, therefore the application of an established thought model — Habermas’ action theory — would be beneficial for understanding the nature and dynamics of THC.

  • The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the legacy of Jürgen Habermas and adapt it to the context of THC, in order to show the complex cross-cultural dynamics that play a role in THC.

Keywords

Communicative Action Coordination Mechanism Professional Role Medical Tourism Strategic Action 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Appadurai, A. (1996) Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press).Google Scholar
  2. Bourdieu, P. (1984) Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, translated by R. Nice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).Google Scholar
  3. Crooks, V. A., Turner, L., Snyder, J., Johnston, R. and Kingsbury, P. (2011) ‘Promoting medical tourism to India: Messages, images, and the marketing of international patient travel’ Social Science and Medicine 72, 726–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  4. Featherstone, M. (1991) Consumer Culture and Postmodernism (London: Sage).Google Scholar
  5. Habermas, J. (1982) Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkampf).Google Scholar
  6. Hall, S. and du Gay, P. (eds) (1996) Questions of Cultural Identity (London: Sage).Google Scholar
  7. Hollinshead, K. (1998) ‘Tourism, hybridity and ambiguity: The relevance of Bhabha’s third space cultures’ Journal of Leisure Research 30, 1, 121–56.Google Scholar
  8. Iriart, C., Franco, T. and Merhy, E. E. (2011) ‘The creation of the health consumer: Challenges on health sector regulation after managed care era’ Globalization and Health 7, 2, www.globalizationandhealth.com date accessed 7 February 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Liu, S., Volcic, Z. and Gallois, C. (2011) Introducing Intercultural Communication, Global Cultures and Contexts (London: Sage).Google Scholar
  10. Lunt, N., Hardey, M. and Mannion, R. (2010) ‘Nip, tuck and click: Medical tourism and the emergence of web-based health information’ The Open Medical Informatics Journal 4, 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. Lunt, N. and Carrera, P. (2011) ‘Advice for Prospective Medical Tourists: Systematic review of consumer sites’ Tourism Review 66, 57–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Lunt, N., Smith, R., Exworthy, M., Green, S. T., Horsfall, D. and Mannion, R. (2011) Medical Tourism, Treatments, Markets and Health System Implications: A Scoping Review (OECD: Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, available online).Google Scholar
  13. Mainil, T., Platenkamp, V. and Meulemans, H. (2010) ‘Diving into contexts of in-between worlds: World making in medical tourism’ Tourism Analysis 15, 743–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. Mainil, T., Platenkamp, V. and Meulemans, H. (2011) ‘The evolving discourse of medical tourism in the media: In search of the rupture’ Tourism Review 66, 31–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  15. Mainil, T., Van Loon, E, Dinnie, K., Botterill, D., Platenkamp, V. and Meulemans, H. (2012) ‘Transnational health care: A quest for a global terminology’ Health Policy 108, 1, 37–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  16. Nutbeam, D. (2000) ‘Health literacy as a public health goal: A challenge for contemporary health education and communication strategies into the 21th century’ Health Promotion International 15, 3, 259–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. Said, E. (1979) Orientalism: Western conceptions of the Orient (London: Penguin Books).Google Scholar
  18. Smith, R. D., Rupa, C. and Viroj, T. (2009) ‘Trade in health-related services’ The Lancet 373, 593–601.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  19. Snyder, J., Crooks, V. A., Adams, K., Kingsbury, P. and Johnston, R. (2011) ‘The “patient’s physician one-step removed”: The evolving roles of medical tourism facilitators’ Global Medical Ethics 37, 530–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  20. Turner, L. G. (2011a) ‘Quality in health care and globalization of health services: Accreditation and regulatory oversight of medical tourism companies’ International Journal for Quality in Health Care 23, 1, 1–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  21. Turner, L. (2011b) ‘Canadian medical tourism companies that have exited the marketplace: Content analysis of websites used to market transnational medical travel’ Global Health 14 October, 71, 40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Tomas Mainil, Vincent Platenkamp and Herman Meulemans 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  • Tomas Mainil
  • Vincent Platenkamp
  • Herman Meulemans

There are no affiliations available

Personalised recommendations