The marriage of Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) with the Culture-Centered Approach (CCA) seems to be one that was destined to happen...the synergies between these approaches to the uses of clinical information are incredible. This brings me to the core point about CCA, the one about Structure, and one that puts it in opposition to postmodern approaches to critical theory that often get reduced to the feel-good elements of identity politics in multiculturalism. In foregrounding the localized voices of the margins, the approach continually seeks to engage with entry points for making truth claims in relationship to social structures. That hunger is a truth in the most salient rendition of it is something that is continually brought to the forefront in multiple CCA studies. If CCA is positioned in the quest for truth that is grounded in material evidence, the value of CER to CCA precisely lies in the quest for clinical evidence base for medical decision-making that is grounded ...
This blog offers Mohan Dutta's reflections on the theoretical framework of the culture-centered approach, examining the interplays among Structure, Culture, and Agency in shaping marginalisation and the ways in which communities at the margins challenge structures. Writings on the blog are continually being revised to reflect the organic analysis of structure and agency.