Centre for Advanced Studies in Biomedical Innovation Law, Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Centre for Medical Science and Technology Studies, Section for Health Services Research, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Sociol Health Illn. 2022 Dec;44 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):41-56. doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.13464. Epub 2022 Mar 24.
Health-related ethnography undertaken in a context marked by social inequalities and colonial legacies requires critical attention to power imbalances in the fieldwork. In this paper, I draw on my own experiences from studying genetic research in Pakistan. As a Danish-born female researcher with roots in Pakistan, I have followed genetic researchers and families dealing with genetic conditions in Pakistan. Through examples I unearth how encounters in the field were shaped by complicities of being in-between the Danish and the Pakistani, of studying and doing international research at the same time, and of my inaction towards suffering families. I base my analysis on the notion that complicity manifests in a generative, and unavoidable, engagement with both complex structures of inequality and interlocutors. We can never fully understand the specificities or consequences of complicity-whether moral or epistemic-when entering, engaging with or representing our fields. However, by staying constructively with the tensions, instead of attempting to move beyond the discomfort that they might create, we can learn how to deal with the consequences and in that, build further the value of ethnographic activity.
在一个存在社会不平等和殖民遗产的背景下进行与健康相关的民族志研究，需要对田野工作中的权力不平衡现象给予批判性关注。在本文中，我借鉴了自己在巴基斯坦进行基因研究的经验。作为一名在丹麦出生、在巴基斯坦有根基的女性研究人员，我一直关注研究基因的研究人员和处理基因疾病的家庭。通过例子，我揭示了田野中的遭遇是如何受到丹麦人和巴基斯坦人之间的默契、同时进行研究和开展国际研究的复杂性以及我对受苦家庭的不作为的影响。我的分析基于这样一种观点，即共谋表现为与不平等的复杂结构和对话者之间不可避免的、富有成效的参与。当我们进入、参与或代表我们的领域时，我们永远无法完全理解共谋的具体情况或后果——无论是道德上的还是认识论上的。然而，通过建设性地处理紧张关系，而不是试图超越它们可能造成的不适，我们可以学习如何应对后果，并在这一过程中进一步增加民族志活动的价值。
