{"id":{"repo_id":"cape-town","oai_identifier":"oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/14139"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/cape-town/oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/14139","repository":{"repo_id":"cape-town","name":"University of Cape Town","base_url":"https://open.uct.ac.za/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Protocol and beyond: experiment and care during a TB vaccine clinical trial in South Africa","abstract":"There has been a substantial increase in the amount of biomedical research being conducted in resource-poor regions of the world since the 1980s, particularly clinical trials involving human subjects. With a particular focus on public-sector clinical trials, a number of anthropologists have recently conducted important ethnographic research into the ground-level operations of clinical research organisations and the relationships between doctors, co-ordinators, participants and non- participants. It has been argued that formal ethics and the scientific practices they govern obscure a relational and affective dimension of clinical trials, which is both necessary for, and transcends, the requirements of trial protocols. On the basis of ethnographic research with a clinical research organisation in South Africa specialising in trialling tuberculosis (TB) vaccines, I contend the explanatory value of tracing the diseases 'under the microscope' from global public health agendas to ground-level research practices when exploring the relationships between the 'ordered separations' of medical research structures and the relational-affective dimension they obscure. Through a close examination of TB at different levels of scale, I aim to open up more avenues of enquiry into the multifarious factors that shape the important relations that develop between clinical research organisations and those on whom research is conducted.","abstract_html":"There has been a substantial increase in the amount of biomedical research being conducted in resource-poor regions of the world since the 1980s, particularly clinical trials involving human subjects. With a particular focus on public-sector clinical trials, a number of anthropologists have recently conducted important ethnographic research into the ground-level operations of clinical research organisations and the relationships between doctors, co-ordinators, participants and non- participants. It has been argued that formal ethics and the scientific practices they govern obscure a relational and affective dimension of clinical trials, which is both necessary for, and transcends, the requirements of trial protocols. On the basis of ethnographic research with a clinical research organisation in South Africa specialising in trialling tuberculosis (TB) vaccines, I contend the explanatory value of tracing the diseases 'under the microscope' from global public health agendas to ground-level research practices when exploring the relationships between the 'ordered separations' of medical research structures and the relational-affective dimension they obscure. Through a close examination of TB at different levels of scale, I aim to open up more avenues of enquiry into the multifarious factors that shape the important relations that develop between clinical research organisations and those on whom research is conducted.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Dixon, Justin"],"institution":"Social Anthropology","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Macdonald, Helen"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2013,"date_issued":"2013","date_published":"2013","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:23:02Z","subjects":[],"languages":["eng"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14139","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Macdonald, Helen"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Dixon, Justin"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2015-10-06T14:13:47Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2015-10-06T14:13:47Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2013"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.department","label":"Dc Publisher Department","values":["Social Anthropology"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.institution","label":"Dc Publisher Institution","values":["University of Cape Town"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Master Thesis"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationlevel","label":"Dc Type Qualificationlevel","values":["Masters"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationname","label":"Dc Type Qualificationname","values":["MSocSc"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["eng"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14139"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["There has been a substantial increase in the amount of biomedical research being conducted in resource-poor regions of the world since the 1980s, particularly clinical trials involving human subjects. With a particular focus on public-sector clinical trials, a number of anthropologists have recently conducted important ethnographic research into the ground-level operations of clinical research organisations and the relationships between doctors, co-ordinators, participants and non- participants. It has been argued that formal ethics and the scientific practices they govern obscure a relational and affective dimension of clinical trials, which is both necessary for, and transcends, the requirements of trial protocols. On the basis of ethnographic research with a clinical research organisation in South Africa specialising in trialling tuberculosis (TB) vaccines, I contend the explanatory value of tracing the diseases 'under the microscope' from global public health agendas to ground-level research practices when exploring the relationships between the 'ordered separations' of medical research structures and the relational-affective dimension they obscure. Through a close examination of TB at different levels of scale, I aim to open up more avenues of enquiry into the multifarious factors that shape the important relations that develop between clinical research organisations and those on whom research is conducted."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Protocol and beyond: experiment and care during a TB vaccine clinical trial in South Africa"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Macdonald, Helen"],"dc:creator":["Dixon, Justin"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2015-10-06T14:13:47Z"],"dc:date.available":["2015-10-06T14:13:47Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2013"],"dc:description.abstract":["There has been a substantial increase in the amount of biomedical research being conducted in resource-poor regions of the world since the 1980s, particularly clinical trials involving human subjects. With a particular focus on public-sector clinical trials, a number of anthropologists have recently conducted important ethnographic research into the ground-level operations of clinical research organisations and the relationships between doctors, co-ordinators, participants and non- participants. It has been argued that formal ethics and the scientific practices they govern obscure a relational and affective dimension of clinical trials, which is both necessary for, and transcends, the requirements of trial protocols. On the basis of ethnographic research with a clinical research organisation in South Africa specialising in trialling tuberculosis (TB) vaccines, I contend the explanatory value of tracing the diseases 'under the microscope' from global public health agendas to ground-level research practices when exploring the relationships between the 'ordered separations' of medical research structures and the relational-affective dimension they obscure. Through a close examination of TB at different levels of scale, I aim to open up more avenues of enquiry into the multifarious factors that shape the important relations that develop between clinical research organisations and those on whom research is conducted."],"dc:identifier.uri":["http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14139"],"dc:language.iso":["eng"],"dc:publisher.department":["Social Anthropology"],"dc:publisher.institution":["University of Cape Town"],"dc:title":["Protocol and beyond: experiment and care during a TB vaccine clinical trial in South Africa"],"dc:type":["Master Thesis"],"dc:type.qualificationlevel":["Masters"],"dc:type.qualificationname":["MSocSc"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:23:02Z"}