Politics and Practices of the Ethnographies of Biomedicine and STEM: Among White Coats

Politics and Practices of the Ethnographies of Biomedicine and STEM: Among White Coats collects critical examinations of the politics, positionality, and epistemological and methodological issues of doing ethnography in a number of locales across the globe and in fields including computer science, astronomy, mining, biology, and medicine. The book captures a wide breadth of ethnographic case studies conducted by scholars at different stages of their careers, with various geographical backgrounds, and working across different settings and regions of the world, demonstrating the unfolding of overlapping concerns in unique ways. ‘Among White Coats’ is the first systematic and critical examination of the politics and epistemology of doing ethnography in biomedicine and STEM, adding to the extensive production of studies based on the ethnography of medicine and ethnography of science, as well as the ongoing debate on the foundation of ethnography. The book is geared toward academics and research students from different disciplinary backgrounds. It is a resource useful not only for students and Ph.D. candidates but also for expert ethnographers, presenting the most recent debates on ethnography and knowledge production in the STEM and biomedical fields. The book is partly a response to the growing awareness of the increasingly pertinent objective for ethnographers to reflect on their positionalities in their writing. Thus, this book offers a reflexive guide to thinking through the political and practical aspects of ethnographic practice. Foreword: Ethnography and Experiment Among White Coats References Contents List of Contributors 1 Introduction: Conducting Ethnography Among White Coats 1.1 The Benefits and the Challenges of Studying Up 1.2 Asymmetries, Knowledge and Prestige 1.3 The Contents of This Book References Part I Positionalities 2 Positionality in STEM Ethnographies: “Where Are You Really from?” 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Positionality: Global, Local, Unequal 2.3 “Where Are You from?” 2.4 “Where Are You Really from?” 2.5 “Almost Forgot Where You Are from” 2.6 Conclusion References 3 Ethnographers and Subjectivity; Doctors and Comradely Critique 3.1 Subjectivity as an Ethnographic Tool 3.2 Alan and the Example of Socialism 3.3 Ruth and Solidarity 3.4 The Stakes of Ethnographic Exit 3.5 Comradely Critique 3.6 Conclusion References 4 Asymmetries of Knowledge and Asymmetries of Power: The Lights and Shades of Anthropology in Biomedical Context 4.1 Introduction 4.2 The Provisional Status of Scientific Knowledge 4.3 Biomedical Knowledge and Biomedical Language as Ambiguous Tools 4.4 When the Anthropologist Comes from the (Internal) South: Flipping the Ethnographic Script 4.5 Conclusions References 5 Being a Native Anthropologist Among Scientists 5.1 Background 5.2 Positionality 5.3 Access to Field Site 5.4 The Expectations 5.5 Communication Problems 5.6 Conclusion: Who Are We, in Relation to the Global North? References Part II Collaborations 6 Critical Notes on Co-production: Empirical Analyses on Sustainable Mining Co-design in Northern Brazil 6.1 Introduction: Coproducing Sustainability? 6.2 Co-production in Theory 6.3 The Critique of Co-production 6.3.1 Assessment 6.3.2 Procedures 6.3.3 Political and Social Factors 6.4 Co-producing Sustainability? The Case of Artisanal Gold Mining in Brazil 6.4.1 Workshop Background 6.4.2 Co-production Dynamics and Its Limits 6.4.2.1 The Challenge of Interdisciplinary Work 6.4.2.2 Relationships and Power Dynamics 6.4.3 Envisaging Sustainable Futures for Peixoto 6.5 Conclusion References 7 Engaging with a Xenobiology Laboratory as a Social Scientist: Lessons, Opportunities, and Challenges 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Integrating the Social Scientist 7.3 Lessons and Challenges of Collaborating with a Xenobiology Laboratory 7.3.1 Collaboration Requires Rapport 7.3.2 Engagement with an Extended Range of Stakeholders 7.3.3 Decision-Making Capacity of Junior Researchers 7.3.4 Cultural and Historical Knowledge of the Life Sciences 7.3.5 Alignment of the Scope of the Collaboration with Social Scientists 7.3.6 Misinterpretation of Scientists and Engineers 7.4 Access and Distribution of Benefits 7.5 Testing Environmental Risks 7.6 Conclusion References Part III Domination and Access to the Field 8 White Coats and Carceral Bodies: Ethnographies of Multiplicities Behind Bars 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Research in Practice 8.2.1 Ethnography in the Context of the History of Carceral Knowledge Production 8.2.2 Becoming a Shadow: Fitting into the Flow 8.3 Monitoring Doctors 8.4 The Line Between Corrections and Medicine 8.5 Studying a “Culture” of Violence 8.6 Conclusion References 9 Tentacles of Ethnographic Conditions: Studying Biomedical Research in the Making at a High-Security Site 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Ethnographic Preconditions 9.3 Accessing a High-Security Site: The Tissue Bank 9.3.1 Entrance as an Eternal External Visitor 9.3.2 Armwrestling with Ethnographic Work Undesigned Relationality 9.4 The Tentacles of the Ethnographic Conditions 9.4.1 The Tentacles of the Non-disclosure Agreement, a Heavy Companion 9.4.2 The Tentacles of the Collaboration Agreement, I am Not a Journalist! 9.5 Conclusion References 10 Who’s the Expert Here? Negotiating Expertise in Palliative Care and Transplant Medicine 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Expertise in Transplant Medicine and Palliative Care 10.2.1 Hierarchical Transplant Medicine: Surgical Skills at the Centre 10.2.2 Horizontal Palliative Care: Interdisciplinarity and the Role of Nurses 10.3 Fieldwork in Transplant Medicine and Palliative Care 10.3.1 A Particular Role in the Transplant Clinic 10.3.2 Everyday Routines in the Palliative Care Nursing Team 10.4 Publishing ‘Among White Coats’ 10.5 Concluding Remarks: The Temporality and Politics of Expertise References 11 Ethnography of a Socialist Innovation: Sociological Collaboration and Power Relations in Cuban Biomedicine 11.1 Introduction 11.1.1 Note on My Fieldwork 11.2 Biomedical Diplomacy 11.2.1 Sociological Collaboration 11.3 Studying Socialism Up and Down 11.4 Discussion and Conclusion References