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GOALS

Goal 1: To grasp and characterize in the two countries studied (France and Poland) representations of homeopathy for each targeted actor (patients, doctors, experts, students ...).

 

Goal 2: Define a mapping of the controversy on homeopathy of the two European countries according to the cultural context and gender: take into account their positions and representations on homeopathy and define the major influences and interactions between them.

 

Goal 3: Analyze the impact on the career and reputation of scientific experts in the communication of controversial data and define the communication issues of pharmaceutical laboratories beyond financial profitability (define the facilitators / obstacles).

 

Goal 4: Help the citizen to form an opinion on these controversial issues.

 

Goal 5: Participate in the improvement of science-society communication on homeopathy through possible generalizable proposals.

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The duration of the HOMEOCSS project will be 4 years. The global challenge will be to better understand and improve communication between Science and Society by taking a case study for which Science and Society are fully involved and actors. Indeed, in the case of the controversy on homeopathy, the general public as well as scientific experts, medical practitioners, pharmaceutical companies, associations, politicians and the academy of sciences, are involved in the controversy by positioning themselves favorably or unfavorably for taking homeopathic medicines and their efficacy. Basic and applied research is opposed to the theoretical explanation of a possible therapeutic efficacy, the Academy of Sciences having an official position against these treatments, nevertheless a good part of the population uses these drugs. Moreover, in a very contradictory way, these drugs have been partially reimbursed in some countries according to the impulsed political choices; a European harmonization commission on the management of homeopathy has been set up.

The HOMEOCSS project will provide a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the subject of controversy studied in order to better define the positions and influences of the actors involved. This study will take into account the cultural context and gender through a comparative study that will be established between France, the country most involved in Europe, and Poland, one of the countries less involved in the face of homeopathy. In fact, the sales market is dominated by three countries: France, Germany and Italy, which together account for 80% of the European medicines market and 40% of the European population. Poland only entered Europe in 2004 and is already in 8th place. France is also the leading consumer country of homeopathic products (French using 20% ​​of world production). Poland comes in 11th place, as a consumer country, out of the 21 European countries studied (study by European research CAMBRELLA and ECHAMP).

Although about three quarters of Europeans are aware of the existence of homeopathy, there is a significant difference in European countries more or less consumers of homeopathic products. 95% of French people know the existence of homeopathy and 56% use homeopathic treatments. In contrast, 50% of Poles know the existence of homeopathy and 30% have used these treatments (CAMBRELLA and ECHAMP).

As a result, the cultural context and gender may be factors explaining these differences between countries. That is why, in order to define it, HOMEOCSS chose in first approach a comparative analysis between two European countries: the first consumer and producer country, France, and a European country less consumer and producer of homeopathic treatments, Poland. This analysis will not only take into account the cultural and gender aspects, but also cross-evaluate the representations (by producing concept maps) of societal actors involved in the controversy of homeopathy and establish a cartography. mentioning the influences of the actors between them.

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