Making India a Global Healthcare Destination: A Social Study of High-Tech Hospitals and Neo-oriental Spas
Contrat DFG (2009-2013) | Cermes3; Cluster of Excellence, University of Heidelberg
Coordinateur : Laurent Pordié
This research project addresses the fast growing sector of medical and wellness travel in India, and attempts to understand the ways by which India is promoted as a global health care destination. What are the effects of 'health tourism' on India's health care system, particularly in terms of disparities of access? Does health tourism influence care standards in specialized hospitals and spas (techniques and technologies, patterns of communication, practice)? What cultural factors are involved in the economics of health tourism? This multidisciplinary project comprises four main research axes: National and international marketing strategies; Transformation of infrastructure and the use of 'place'; Issues of 'cultural translation'; Globalization and the transformation of therapeutic practices. The analytic baseline is concerned with the flows and mutual shaping of ideas, images, techniques, objects and bodies; patterns of self-representation (practitioners and patients) and cultural stereotypes.
