Dear All,
This might be of interest to some on the list.
Best regards
Sahil Warsi and Julie Botticello
*P42: Bodies of knowledge and epistemological challenges to
ethnographic practice in medical research*
http://medanthlisbon2017.apantropologia.org/p42/
This panel will be held at the EASA Medical Anthropology Network, 2017
Biannual Conference Network Meeting, 5-7 July, Lisbon, Portugal.
Coordinators: Sahil Warsi (University of Leeds) and Julie Botticello
(University of East London)
*Short abstract:*
This panel considers challenges and solutions of ethnography in a climate
structured by measurement-driven outputs. It asks what kinds of bodies are
allowed to be known, and what knowledge is sanctioned as medical/health
knowledge? Which bodies are ethnographers in public health research allowed
to access, and where, when and how?
*Long abstract:*In public health research, ethnography ‘generally refers to
a standardized research protocol… of one-shot, enumerated, formal
interviews conducted in an unnatural… environment’ (Messac et al 2013:
177). Imagined as the qualitative equivalent of a randomized control trial,
the aim of such “ethnography” is to prove or disprove a particular
intervention. Yet ethnography documents more than just narratives captured
in interviews, and instead elucidates the wider context of research
participants’
experience.
Popay and Williams (1997: 760) pointed out how ‘the epistemology of [medical]
science is based on the concept of disease as something than can be
‘treated’ objectively, separate from the individuals’ experiences of the
material reality of their everyday lives.’ The rational logic of science,
they contend, obscures its basis as determined by funding agendas and
measureable targets, and thus obscures the subjective nature of its belief
in its own objectivity. Under this rubric, ethnography has been
marginalized in public health research, but the promotion of mixed-methods
research could create opportunities for better research on bodies and their
contexts through research grounded in multiple ways of knowing (McBride
2015).
Current research and funding climates structured by evidence-based research and
policy (Solesbury 2001) places ethnographers in unequal power relationships
with medical professionals and health care systems. Among other questions,
this panel welcomes papers that consider how these power relationships
reflect what medical/health knowledge is and how is it constructed, which
bodies of knowledge matter, and what tactics are available to researchers
in addressing challenges to ethnographic practice in public health research.
If you are interested, please send your proposal (up to 300 words) directly
to Sahil Warsi ([log in to unmask]) and Julie Botticello (
[log in to unmask]).
Deadline for paper proposals is 1st April, 2017; accepted papers will be
announced on 15th April, 2017.
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