Scholar's Award: Permeable Spaces and the Global Flow of Biomedical Knowledge

Bowdoin College, Brunswick ME

Investigators

Abstract

Past studies of laboratories, test fields, museums and other sites of scientific dissemination and production have found that physical places often limit the kinds of knowledge that can be produced and circulated. This study challenges that framework, offering a new theoretical framework and methodology that treats physical spaces as permeable and important sites of knowledge circulation and transformation. Its second major contribution is to integrate studies of federal regulations with empirical qualitative evidence of biomedical practices. The study is based on a global hospital ethnography that examines the factors that shape the global distribution and circulation of biomedical knowledge. It investigates how the physical layout and organization of a hospital, cultural understandings of biomedicine, and rules and regulations intersect to shape how knowledge is understood, used and circulated by different actors. The main research methods are participant observation, interviews, and content analysis of regulations and laws. Broader impacts include new knowledge delivered to agencies that provide services for immigrants in the greater Portland, Maine area where the study takes place; reports and presentations for biomedical staff; and scientific publications.