Events

This workshop is jointly organized by the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, and Research Center on Science, Medicine and Society (Cermes3 – EHESS/CNRS/INSERM), Paris.

The workshop will explore how the production, distribution, circulation and consumption of so called traditional medicines in Asia and Southeast Asia have changed in the last fifty years, and point out the social, cultural, political and economic forces underlying this change. While showing the global dominance of the biomedical sciences and their instrumentalisation in the form of biopower, the papers will also reveal the resilience of traditional medicines and their innovative power and ability to develop alternative forms of modernity.

From the middle of the 20th century, traditional medicines have undergone a process of modernization, industrialization, standardization and “purification” from spiritual and religious aspects. Natural remedies have become industrial, ready-made products, available in form of powders or tablets. In conjunction with this industrustrialisation of medical production, the exponential growth of the pharmaceutical market has further contributed to transform the natural remedies into easily accessible and standardized commercial and consumer goods.

Because of the integration of some traditional medicines in national health systems and the growth of the pharmaceutical market, alongside the increasing consumption of natural products all over the globe, national and global health policy makers became more and more concerned with question of the quality and especially of the safety of traditional products. The lack of homogeneity between the different countries’ regulations is problematic all the more so as the products themselves can be classified in a different way, i.e. as drugs or as food supplements, and hence being assessed according to different rules.

The workshop aims to explore the following questions:

• How so-called “traditional” medicines/drugs are regulated in different Asian and Southeast Asian countries.
  To what extent these regulations conform to the WHO guidelines.
• How such medicines circulate within Asia and in the world. What are their networks?
• To what extent can traditional medicines be modified without losing efficacy and specificity?
• How efficacy, quality and safety are conceived in biomedicine vs in traditional medicines.
  How these conceptions are negotiated through discourses and practices.
• The extent to which valuable animal and plant resources in Asia and beyond have been threatened by illegal harvesting and smuggling connected to traditional medicines. The links between such medicines and organized crime.
• To what extent traditional medicines should or can be transformed in order to guarantee their safety (and that of the resources behind them) and quality, while still maintaining their accessibility to local people.

REGISTRATION

Admission is free, and seats are available on a first come, first served basis. We would greatly appreciate if you register your interest in attending to Ms Valerie Yeo via email: valerie.yeo@nus.edu.sg.

CONTACT DETAILS

Workshop Convenors

Dr Céline CODEREY
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
E | ariceli@nus.edu.sg

Assoc Prof Gregory CLANCEY
Asia Research Institute, Tembusu College, & Department of History, National University of Singapore
E | hisgkc@nus.edu.sg

Dr Laurent PORDIÉ
Research Center on Science, Medicine and Society (Cermes3 – EHESS/CNRS/INSERM), Paris

Secretariat

Ms Valerie YEO
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
E | valerie.yeo@nus.edu.sg