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This paper examines a group of lay homoeopaths, represented by the Society of Homoeopathy, and traces the changes that have been made to their organisation, training and knowledge as they attempt to enhance their legitimacy in the eyes of the public, government and orthodox medical profession. The group has acquired a number of `professional' properties, but in so doing have reduced levels of freedom, marginalised factions within the group and failed to gain greater authority in the healthcare market. The homoeopaths themselves thus recognise that there are costs as well as benefits associated with their professional project and so they have undertaken many of the changes reluctantly.

The aim of this paper, drawing on data from an exploratory, qualitative investigation of the perceptions of alternative practitioners, is to examine the role and position of nonorthodox medicine within the medical market. It specifically looks at how alternative practitioners firstly 'experience' their position and secondly their perceptions and images of how it should be. Clearly, one ofthe key issues is how the position of alternative practitioners relates to the medical profession and how they manage to estblish and maintain their position. This question was looked at particularly in terms of whether alternative practitioners adopt the strategies used by other occupational groups in the pursuit of autonomy.

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