• Citer

Ways of knowing Medicine

par Bardez, Renaud ;Dhondt, Pieter
Editeur scientifique Majerus, Benoît ;Vandendriessche, Joris
Référence Medical Histories of Belgium, New narratives on health, care and citizenship in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Manchester University Press, Manchester, Ed. 1
Publication Publié, 2021

Partie d'ouvrage collectif

• Accès en ligne
• Détails
• Contenu
• Statistiques

Résumé :

Although medical knowledge has been produced in different forms and locations over the past two centuries, the modern university was certainly its primary locus. The medical faculties of leading educational institutions evolved into the central spaces of scientific research - an evolution that in turn had an impact on the medical curriculum. In Belgium, this 'scientification' occurred along the ideological dividing lines between Catholics and liberals, between the Flemish- and French-speaking communities, and was influenced by the competition between state and private universities. Its principal driving force was the development of laboratory science. However, this dominant form of scientific medical knowledge was often contested. Engaging in the age-old debate between medicine as a science and an art, nineteenth-century practitioners claimed to have practical knowledge, rooted in everyday observations, that was just as 'scientific'. Their knowledge originated primarily around the bedside, what contributed to the changing position of the hospital as an additional professional training site. This chapter presents the development of medical education at the medical schools and later the faculties of medicine in the southern Netherlands/Belgium from the end of the eighteenth century up until today. It focuses on the shifts in the balance between general education, vocational training and scientific schooling, and on the continuous tension between medical specialisation and (the perceived need of offering) a more holistic approach. The process of professionalisation in general followed a similar line of development in Belgium as in most other European countries, yet many specific circumstances also created a unique situation.