Convenor: Ushehwedu Kufakurinani, University of Sussex U.Kufakurinani@sussex.ac.uk
This stream invites scholars, practitioners, and interdisciplinary researchers to engage with the dynamic and multifaceted world of traditional medicines. Our aim is to foreground the lived experiences, knowledge systems, and economic practices that shape the production, circulation, and consumption of traditional healing across diverse geographies. Studies such as Mander et al. (2007) have shown how traditional medicine economies are deeply embedded in local livelihoods and urban markets.
We welcome research that interrogates agency within contexts often marked by discourses of fakery, risk, and contested legitimacy. How do consumers, traders, and producers navigate these narratives and realities? What does it mean to engage with traditional medicines in spaces where they are simultaneously celebrated, commodified, and treated with suspicion? These questions resonate with broader debates on the regulation and integration of traditional medicine into formal health systems (Oguntibeju, 2019; Mponda et al., 2025).
This stream seeks to move beyond state-centric analyses, focusing instead on the everyday lives and experiences of those who produce, trade, and consume traditional medicines. We are particularly interested in papers that explore shifting perspectives, emerging practices, and contested meanings in light of evolving claims about the role and impact of traditional healing. For instance, Tilley (2021) explores how traditional medicine gained global recognition through Pan-African diplomacy and cultural decolonization.
We anticipate contributions that offer rich, grounded insights into the diverse worlds of traditional medicine, helping us better understand its social, cultural, and political significance. Gendered and generational dimensions are especially important, as highlighted in UNDP’s (2007) work on intellectual property and traditional medicinal knowledge.
Key Questions:
· How do consumers navigate trust, efficacy, and cultural meaning in their use of traditional medicines?
· What roles do traders and intermediaries play in shaping access, pricing, and legitimacy?
· How are producers—herbalists, healers, cultivators—responding to changing markets, regulations, and ecological pressures?
· What are the gendered, generational, and transnational dimensions of traditional medicine economies?
· How do traditional medicines intersect with formal health systems, pharmaceutical industries, and global wellness trends?
· What ethical considerations arise when researching the worlds of traditional medicines?
Suggested Sub-Themes:
· Indigenous knowledge and intellectual property
· Urban and rural herbal markets
· Migration and transnational healing practices
· Regulation, certification, and state policy
· Spirituality, ritual, and healing
· Environmental sustainability vs the production of herbal medicines
· Narratives of illness, recovery, and death
