Dear Colleagues,
Please find below a call for chapters that might be of interest for those of
you working on biomedicine and STEM.
Best wishes,
Fatima
Among white coats: Politics and practices of ethnographies of biomedicine and
STEM
The political epistemology of ethnography has undergone significant changes
since the 1970s, exploring the asymmetries of power between the ethnographers
and the participants, the positionality of the ethnographer, and how
ethnographic knowledge is produced. However, most of the reflection has
focused on cases in which the ethnographers hold more power and legitimacy in
the global production of knowledge than the other participants. In this edited
volume we aim to explore the asymmetries arising when conducting ethnographic
research on biomedicine and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).
An early reflection on studying up applying ethnography to study groups
with a higher social prestige was advanced by Laura Nader in 1974. Since
then a wealth of ethnographic studies have emerged that roughly fall under the
umbrellas of Anthropology of Science and/or STS (Science and Technology
Studies). Despite the proliferation, systematic analyses of the specific
challenges of doing ethnography in these contexts have been relatively rare
and confined to the methods sections of books and articles of ethnographers
working on the sectors (e.g. Gusterson 1997; Williams 2018).
We aim to analyse the asymmetries of power arising both between the actors and
between the actors and ethnographers and the situated, contextual and
political nature of knowledge. We aim to untangle the different element of
these asymmetries, including the divide between expert and lay, local and
global/universal, objective and militant knowledge, and the hierarchies
between disciplines. We are also interested in how official roles, formal
qualifications, as well as class, gender and race/nationality/ethnicity,
structure the production of knowledge.
Ethnographers bring their own positionality to the field, and this volume also
aims to explore the conditions of the production of the ethnographers gaze.
We invite contributions rooted in specific ethnographic experiences, but with
a focus on the standpoint, methodological and epistemological issues arising
from doing ethnography of biomedicine and STEM, rather than on the findings
pertaining more strictly to the objects of research.
We invite contributions exploring traditional ethnographical methods
(participant observation, shadowing, in-depth interviews, etc.), as well as
the methods of digital ethnography, taking in consideration also how the
COVID-19 pandemic is limiting in-person ethnography.
If you are interested in contributing to this project, please send an abstract
(300 words maximum) and a bio (200 words maximum) by the 30th of October to
cinzia.greco@manchester.ac.uk and
fatima.elfitouri@kcl.ac.uk
The selected abstracts will be included in a book proposal. We are currently
discussing the publication of the volume in an STS book series.
References
Gusterson, Hugh (1997) Studying Up Revisited. Political and Legal Anthropology
Review 20(1): 114-119.
Nader, Laura (1974) Up the Anthropologist Perspectives Gained From Studying
Up. In Dell Hymes (ed.) Reinventing Anthropology. New York: Vintage Books:
284-311.
Williams, Logan D.A. (2018) Mapping Superpositionality in Global Ethnography.
Science, Technology & Human Values 43(2): 198-223.
Fatima Elfitouri
PhD Candidate
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Department of Global Health & Social Medicine
School of Global Affairs
Faculty of Social Sciences and Public Policy
Kings College London
North-East Wing | Bush House | London | WC2B 4BG
https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/fatima-elfitouri
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