ABSTRACT
Our aim in writing this book was to provide a sociologically informed analysis of the role CAMs are playing in cancer care in the UK. This was achieved by marrying a range of data sources to a critical engagement with various forms of sociological theory that have been drawn on when considering the place of CAMs in the West. We were able to draw on a substantial number of interviews with cancer patients and key oncology clinicians. Furthermore, we gathered in-depth diary data from a select group of these patients as a means of gaining insight into the day-to-day, temporal experiences of being a cancer patient, further expanding on our analysis of the face-to-face interviews. That the work is essentially sociological in nature is of some importance and represents a continuation of an approach to the study of CAM which has been detailed elsewhere (Tovey et al., 2007). That approach is underpinned by the necessity of providing a form of analysis about CAMs that is focused neither on the pursuit of evidence on efficacy and effectiveness nor on the demands of immediate and localised policy agendas.
