In his account of the medical profession’s ascent, Paul Starr drew a distinction between the social authority of physicians and the cultural authority of medicine—between doctors’ capacity to direct others’ behavior and the ability of medical institutions and discourses to shape meanings of illness, health, wellness, and treatment. Subsequently, scholars have reflected on the social-structural transformations challenging physicians’ social authority but neglected shifts in cultural authority. Focusing on the United States, we find a proliferation and diversification of cultural authority, reflecting a partial movement from the domain of medicine into new terrains of health. This shift is apparent in the resurgence of alternative healing, the advent of new forms of self-care and self-monitoring, the rise of health social movements, and the spread of health information online. We advance a research agenda to understand how the mechanisms and dynamics of cultural authority shape contests to speak in the name of health.

在他对医学界崛起的描述中，保罗·斯塔尔区分了医生的社会权威和医学的文化权威——医生指导他人行为的能力与医疗机构和话语塑造疾病含义的能力，健康、保健和治疗。随后，学者们反思了挑战医生社会权威的社会结构转型，却忽视了文化权威的转变。以美国为中心，我们发现文化权威的扩散和多样化，反映了从医学领域向新的健康领域的部分运动。这种转变在替代疗法的复兴、自我保健和自我监测新形式的出现、健康社会运动的兴起、以及在线健康信息的传播。我们推进一项研究议程，以了解文化权威的机制和动态如何塑造以健康的名义发言的竞赛。