Culture-Centered Engagement With Delivery of Health Services: Co-Constructing Meanings of Health in the Tzu Chi Foundation Through Buddhist Philosophy

The shift in health communication scholarship from the narrow focus on curing to the complexly intertwined spaces of health, illness, healing, and curing attends to the dynamic cultural contexts within which meanings and practices are negotiated, directing scholarship toward alternative spaces of he...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inHealth communication Vol. 29; no. 2; pp. 147 - 156
Main Authors Dillard, Sydney J., Dutta, Mohan, Sun, Wei-San
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England Routledge 07.02.2014
Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
Subjects
Biomedical research
Buddhism
Buddhism - psychology
Buddhists
Communication
Cultural aspects
Culture
Delivery of Health Care - ethnology
Delivery of Health Care - methods
Discourse analysis
Foundations - history
Global Health - ethnology
Health
Health - ethnology
Health care
Health information
Health services
History, 20th Century
History, 21st Century
Humans
Meaning
Medical service
Negotiation
Service delivery
Taiwan
Taiwan
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Summary:The shift in health communication scholarship from the narrow focus on curing to the complexly intertwined spaces of health, illness, healing, and curing attends to the dynamic cultural contexts within which meanings and practices are negotiated, directing scholarship toward alternative spaces of health care delivery. This study utilized the culture-centered approach as a theoretical lens for providing a discursive space for understanding meanings of health constituted in the practices of the Tzu Chi Foundation, an organization that offers biomedical services within the larger philosophical understandings of Buddhism with 10 million members in over 50 different countries. The emerging perspective promotes non-biomedical meanings of health through selfless giving and assistance founded in Buddhist principles, simultaneously seeking purity of the mind, body, and soul holistically. Through the negotiation of the principles driving Buddhist philosophy and the principles that shape biomedical health care delivery, this study seeks to understand the interpretive frames that circulate among foundation staff and care recipients.
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ISSN:1041-0236
1532-7027
DOI:10.1080/10410236.2012.729262