Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Politics of Knowledge Production in Collaborative Scientific Research in Malawi

研究生 Crystal Lynn Biruk 在 Sandra T. Barnes 博士的指导下，将通过案例研究开展跨文化专家知识生成的社会科学研究，该案例研究在马拉维开展四个艾滋病合作研究项目期间如何产生、沟通和谈判不同的风险结构。 总体假设是，关于艾滋病风险的权威知识来自于国际调查人员、马拉维调查人员和在实地实施项目的马拉维中间人之间的社会互动，并且这种权威知识随后在村庄中得到进一步重新解释。研究人员将使用多种社会科学研究方法来收集定性数据，包括档案研究、文献分析、半结构化访谈以及参与艾滋病合作研究的参与者的参与观察。捐助者和国家政府越来越要求撒哈拉以南非洲的艾滋病研究是合作的。 他们认为协作工作没有问题，而相反，理论社会科学文献声称跨越社会和文化界限的协作可能充满紧张。 开展合作研究是为了提供证据，为艾滋病毒预防政策和计划提供信息。因此，重要的是要了解不同的研究合作者最初如何概念化他们想要研究的风险，以及随着研究的进展，这些概念化的多样性如何得到解决或未得到解决。这项研究很重要，因为它将有助于关于专家知识领域全球和地方机构之间关系的社会科学理论，以及更广泛的知识社会科学领域。它还可能有助于为不同文化背景的人们之间的科学研究合作制定更好的策略。此外，该研究还将支持社会科学家的教育。

Graduate student Crystal Lynn Biruk, supervised by Dr. Sandra T. Barnes, will undertake research on the social science of expert knowledge generation cross-culturally through a case study of how different constructions of risk are produced, communicated and negotiated during the conduct of four collaborative AIDS research projects in Malawi. The overarching hypothesis is that authoritative knowledge about AIDS risk emerges out of the social interactions among international investigators, Malawian investigators, and the Malawian intermediaries who implement the projects in the field, and that this authoritative knowledge is then further reinterpreted in the villages. The researcher will use multiple social science research methods to collect qualitative data, including archival research, documentary analysis, semi-structured interviews, and participant observation among actors involved in collaborative AIDS research.Donors and national governments increasingly require that AIDS research in sub-Saharan Africa be collaborative. They treat collaborative work as unproblematic, while, in contrast, the theoretical social science literatures claim that collaboration across social and cultural boundaries is likely to be fraught with tensions. Collaborative research is undertaken to provide evidence that informs HIV prevention policies and programs. Therefore, it is important to understand how different research collaborators initially conceptualize the risk they aim to study, and how diversity in these conceptualizations is or is not resolved as the research progresses. This research is important because it will contribute to social science theory about the relationship between global and local agency in the arena of expert knowledge, and to the field of the social science of knowledge more generally. It also may help to develop better strategies for scientific research collaborations between people of different cultures. In addition, the research will support the education of a social scientist.