Committee as Witness: Ethics Review as a Technology of Collective Attestation

Research output: Journal Article or Conference Article in JournalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

This article explores the ethics review committee as a contemporary witness to the conduct of biomedical research. Ethics committee work is an internationally growing form of deliberation and decision making, a technology of anticipation that grants researchers access to experimental spaces, research funds and publication venues. Drawing on ethnographic work with a range of ethics committees across the Asia-Pacific region, I explore the metaphorical extension of logics of seeing into bureaucratic forms of ethics review. My analysis untethers the witnessing voice from an individual ‘point of view’, focusing on the attestive assemblage and its documen- tation. By exploring the committee as a form of collective attestation, I aim to show witnessing as a form of ethical work, for ethical ends.
Original languageEnglish
JournalThe Cambridge Journal of Anthropology
Volume39
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)55-71
Number of pages16
ISSN0305-7674
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 26 Mar 2021

Keywords

  • attesting
  • bureaucracy
  • committee
  • ethics
  • vision
  • witnessing

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Committee as Witness: Ethics Review as a Technology of Collective Attestation'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this