In/dependent Collaborations: Perceptions and Experiences of African Scientists in Transnational HIV Research.

P W Geissler,Ferdinand Moyi Okwaro

doi:10.1111/maq.12206

Abstract

This article examines collaboration in transnational medical research from the viewpoint of African scientists working in partnerships with northern counterparts. It draws on ethnographic fieldwork in an HIV laboratory of an East African state university, with additional data from interviews with scientists working in related research institutions. Collaboration is today the preferred framework for the mechanisms by which northern institutions support research in the south. The concept signals a shift away from the legacy of unequal (post‐) colonial power relations, although, amid persisting inequalities, the rhetorical emphasis on equality might actually hinder critical engagement with conflicts of interest and injustice. To collaborate, African scientists engage various strategies: They establish a qualified but flexible, non‐permanent workforce, diversify collaborators and research areas, source complementary funding to assemble infrastructures, and maintain prospective research populations to attract transnational clinical trials. Through this labor of collaboration, they sustain their institutions under prevailing conditions of scarcity.

Highlights

Clinical trials increasingly occur on a global scale, as industry and governments in wealthy countries in the north move trials to poorer countries in the south
Though linked to actors’ subjectivity, intentions, and experience, has received comparatively less critical attention, is the will to do good, to do one’s work well, and the desire to improve science, people’s lives, and society (e.g., Prince 2013; Tousignant 2013a). Foregrounding this optimistic premise or promise of global health does not distract from questions of inequality and political–economic interest, but allows a more nuanced understanding of contradictions and possibilities
This article is based on ethnography from a research department at a prominent East African public university, which we identify by the acronym UHL (University HIV Lab)

Summary

Introduction

Clinical trials increasingly occur on a global scale, as industry and governments in wealthy countries in the north move trials to poorer countries in the south. This process, sometimes referred to as globalization of clinical trials (Glickman et al 2009; Parker and Bull 2009), has received attention from anthropologists because of their traditional geographical interests and attendant concerns with poor or vulnerable communities combined with the anthropological turn to science and technology (e.g., Cooper 2008; Petryna 2005; Rajan 2006; Simpson et al 2009)

Medical Anthropology Quarterly

Methodology