Studying CAM in Türkiye: Between Multiple Data Sources and the Maps of Situational Analysis

This paper draws on a research project that explores the “situation” of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) or Traditional, Complementary, and Alternative (TC&M) therapies in Türkiye. Using the notion of situation as developed by Adele Clarke, we examine how diverse actors engage with, regulate, and reinterpret CAM practices.

The study aims to understand how medical professionals combine biomedical practices with CAM and how the state regulates these practices through formal legislation. We collected and analyzed multiple data sources: official policy and regulatory documents, thirty semi-structured interviews with medical doctors, bureaucrats, pharmacists, and product suppliers, and a growing dataset of social media accounts. While designed as a qualitative study grounded in Clarke’s situational analysis, the project also engages critically with the methodological implications of applying this approach to heterogeneous data. The situational maps are still under development, as we continue to collect more data, continue interviews and analyzing. 

Our findings reveal that CAM is regulated by the state through mechanisms similar to those governing biomedicine.Physicians’ turn to CAM is often rooted in personal experiences—such as confronting the limits of biomedicine in treating loved ones, dissatisfaction with medical education, or the search for alternative forms of professional identity in an expanding medical market. Social media further emerges as a key arena where practitioners publicly negotiate legitimacy, blend biomedical and alternative discourses, and build professional visibility.

In conclusion, the study contributes to both medical sociology and qualitative methodology by illuminating the ambivalent position of CAM in Türkiye’s health landscape and reflecting on the challenges of constructing Clarke-style situational maps when combining textual, interview, and digital data. As CAM is receiving more attention across different medical and social science studies, this study based on qualitative research will be a major contribution to better understand and explain various different dynamics behind the rise and expansion of CAM.