Culture, health and bioethics. Conceptual clusters and cultural theory
Format
Network collaboration (research initiation)
Funding
Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation)Time table
2011-2013
Aims
The aim of this multi-disciplinary network is to sharpen conceptual and theoretical understandings of culture through interdisciplinary discussions on:
- Integrity/privacy and culture: How is culture an obstacle and a resource in health care and medicine?
- Property and culture: When is it relevant to define property (intellectual, biological, social) as cultural property?
- Communication and culture: How are medical and ethical challenges (safety, quality of life, ageing, native medical knowledge) related to language?
- Organizational culture: How are we ourselves part of cultural practices and how do we negotiate and communicate between cultures?
Network structure
The network combines competence in medicine, quality of life studies, pharmacy, medical anthropology, molecular biology, chemistry, philosophy, law, native studies and religious studies. The network involves both senior and junior researchers and is interdisciplinary in nature. The group will meet twice a year to discuss and plan joint research and publications.
The network is divided into five sub groups: 1: Bioethics and native peoples, 2: The ethics in prospecting biological diversity, 3: Native peoples and quality of life, 4: Cultures of knowledge and organisations and 5: Creativity
1: Bioethics and native peoples
This sub group investigates ethical challenges in research and health care regarding native people. Main focus is on issues that regard health and genetic research, language, and modern Sámi history. Our task includes elaborating implementations of guidelines guarding native peoples rights, as developed by UN, UNESCO and ILO, and to integrate native theory in our ethical elaborations and strives.
Participants: Ann Ragnhild Broderstad, Stefan Eriksson, Prasanna Kumar, Krister Stoor, Anna Lydia Svalastog, Mikael Svonni
Contact: anna-lydia.svalastog@crb.uu.se
Publications:
Svalastog AL, Eriksson S, You can use my name: You don´t have to steal my story - A critique of anonymity in indigenous studies, Developing World Bioethics 2010;10(2):104-110.
2: The ethics in prospecting biological diversity
This sub group studies questions concerning access and benefit-sharing, traditional ecological knowledge, and indigenous and local communities. What are for instance the differences in perception between different actors within the field of bioprospecting, e.g. bioprospectors authorities in the south, local people? What explanation for these differences can be found? What are the ethical dilemmas of bioprospecting?
Participants: Prasanna Kumar, Malin Masterton, Berit Smestad Paulsen, Håkan Tunon, Lars Werderlin
Contact: hakan.tunon@slu.se
3: Native peoples and quality of life
This sub group is researching quality of life among young Indigenous people in contemporary Australia, Norway and Sweden. We are looking at the factors which influence quality and life and well being from a local perspective and the affects of globalization, social networking and other emergent factors on young people's values and aspirations. This research provides us with the opportunities to explore and compare the contemporary experience of young Indigenous people in very diverse settings. We hope that the development of research networks will also provide young people in remote communities to develop and extend their own networks and communication. Our methodological approach places an emphasis on ethnographic engagement and the participation of the young people with whom we are working.
Participants: Ann Ragnhild Broderstad , Richard Chenall, Janice McLauglin, Lena Ring, Kate Senior, Anna Lydia Svalastog
Contact: kate.senior@menizies.edu.au
Publications:
Senior K, Chenhall R, Boyfriends, babies and basketball: present lives and future aspirations of young women in a remote Australian Aboriginal community, accepted for Journal of Youth Studies 2011.
Chenhall R, Senior, K, Cole D, Cunningham T, O’Boyle C, Individual quality of life among at risk Indigenous youth in Australia, Applied Research In Quality of Life, 2010;5:171-183.
4: Cultures of knowledge and organisations
This sub-group examines the cultural mediation involved in how knowledge is produced and claimed and how organisations operate and have influence. We are interested in both everyday negotiations and in broader institutional structure and processes. Our focus is on these dynamics within healthcare contexts in terms of how different professionals construct their identity and position; how different kinds of knowledge is understood as legitimate and how patients (and their families) interact with different aspects of the cultural organisation of healthcare.
Participants: Janice McLauglin, Anna Lydia Svalastog, Kavot Zillén, Elisabeth Rynning
Contact: JaniceMcLaughlin@ncl.ac.uk
Publications:
McLaughlin J, Clavering EK, Visualising Difference, Similarity and Belonging in Paediatric Genetics, Sociology of Health and Illness, 2012;34 4.
McLaughlin J, Phillimore P, Richardson D (eds.), Contesting Recognition: Culture, Identity and Citizenship, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2011.
5: Creativity
Creativity is an essential part in many aspects of society, including scientific endeavours. When defining creativity most people agree that it is aligned with specific personality traits at the individual level, such as diligence, self expression, problem finding and motivation. Originality is necessary but not sufficient for creativity. But what are the mechanisms required for creativity in the academic sciences? Do all scientists have to be creative in their work? What is the relationships between creativity and scientific advancement and development? How do universities and research centres cultivate and encourage creativity, if it all? While we hear little about creativity in University settings today, there is an emphasis on innovation. But what is the difference? This sub-group seeks to understand the link between creativity and scientific endeavour. It will first attempt to define how creativity has been defined and managed historically in specific academic fields and then seek to understand the nature of creativity for academics in a variety of disciplines.
Participants: Richard, Chenhall, Lena Ring, Ludmilla Morozova Roche, Kate Senior
Contact: r.chenhall@unimelb.edu.au
Acitivites
2012 - Joint work in progres
- Late November, First Network Conference
- Third workshop 16-17 of February Wik’s Castle, Uppsala: Presentations of joint articles, work in progress
2011 – Organizing ourselves
- Second workshop 8-9 of September Wik’s Castle, Uppsala: Identifying common areas of interests. Organizing network sub-groups
- First workshop 3-4 of January at Wik’s Castle, Uppsala: Presentations and discussions
Contact and more information
- Anna Lydia Svalastog, Associate professor
Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics, Uppsala University
E-mail: anna-lydia.svalastog@crb.uu.se
Members
Ann Ragnhild Broderstad, PhD
Centre for Sami Health Research, Tromsø University
E-mail: ann.ragnhild.broderstad@uit.no
Richard Chenhall, PhD, Senior Research Fellow, University of Melbourne in Victoria Centre for Health and Society, Melbourne School of Population Health
E-mail: r.chenhall@unimelb.edu.au
Stefan Eriksson, Associate professor
Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics, Uppsala University, editor of CODEX
E-mail: stefan.eriksson@crb.uu.se
Malin Masterton, PhD
Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics, Uppsala University
E-mail: malin.masterton@crb.uu.se
Ludmilla Morozova-Roche, Associate Professor
Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Umeå University
E-mail: ludmilla.morozova-roche@chem.umu.se
Håkan Tunón, Senior Research Officer
CBM Swedish Biodiversity Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Scinces, Uppsala
E-mail: Hakan.Tunon@slu.se
Berit Smestad Paulsen, Professor
Department of Pharmacognosy, Oslo University
E-mail: b.s.paulsen@farmasi.uio.no
Prasanna Patra Kumar, PhD
Department of Anthropology, University of Sussex
E-mail: pkpatra@rediffmail.com
Lena Ring, Associate Professor
Department of Pharmacy, Uppsala University
E-mail: lena.ring@farmaci.uu.se
Elisabeth Rynning, Professor
Department of Law, Uppsala University
E-mail: elisabeth.rynning@jur.uu.se
Janice McLauglin, PhD
Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences Research Centre (PEALS), Newcastle University
E-mail: JaniceMcLaughlin@ncl.ac.uk
Kate Senior, PhD, Senior Research Fellow, the Menzies School of health research in Darwin
E-mail: kate.senior@menzies.edu.au
Krister Stoor, Associate professor
Centre for Saami Research, Umeå univeristy
E-mail: krister.stoor@samiska.umu.se
Anna Lydia Svalastog, Associate professor (Co-ordinator)
Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics, Uppsala University
E-mail: anna-lydia.svalastog@crb.uu.se
Mikael Svonni, Professor
Department of Languages, University of Tromsö, Norway
E-mail: mikael.svonni@uit.no
Lars Werdelin, senior curator
Swedish Museum of Natural History, Department of Palaeozoology
E-mail: lars.werdelin@nrm.se
Kavot Zillén, LLD Student
Department of Law, Uppsala University
E-mail: kavot.zillen@jur.uu.se
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