Category Archives: Uncategorised

Lee Miller: Ethics, photography and ethnography

Kate Winslet’s biopic of Lee Miller, the pioneering woman war photographer, raises some interesting questions about the ethics of fieldwork and their governance. If we reframed Miller’s work as visual ethnography rather than photojournalism, much of it would probably be barred by today’s ethics regulations. On the other hand, her reflective moments well capture the… Read More »

‘Settler Colonialism’ and the Promised Land

The term ‘settler colonialism’ was coined by an Australian historian in the 1960s to describe the occupation of a territory with a view to displacing the original inhabitants. A new society would be created on the occupied territory through the elimination or permanent subordination of the existing people. There is often an element of ethnic… Read More »

The Decameron Revisited – Pandemic as Farce

One of the sleeper hits for Netflix UK this summer has been a reimagining of Bocaccio’s Decameron as a commentary on pandemic behaviour. ….The narrative arc is fundamentally an investigation of class and character in times of peril…The experience of lockdown has changed lives, and eliminated some, but there is little hope amid the chaos.… Read More »

Substandard and falsified medicines in African pharmaceutical markets

Substandard and falsified (SF) medicines are a global health problem. Their high prevalence is a threat to public health in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, there are few street-level investigations of how this market works. This case study examines the supply and demand for SF medicines in Southern Ethiopia. Efforts to address the problem… Read More »

Fear Messaging in a Global Pandemic

We consider the UK Independent Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours’ (SPI-B) support for fear messaging during the global COVID-19 pandemic, evaluate the consequences and make recommendations for the future. Using evidence from published documents, we show that SPI-B supported the use of fear messaging during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is inconsistent with the extant… Read More »

Misrepresenting Pragmatism: Response to Greenhalgh and Engebretsen

Written with the estimable Colin Axon and Jackie Cassell to correct some egregious misunderstandings of what pragmatist philosophy has to say about science and scientific method. “While we would not defend every detail of Covid-19 pandemic management, particularly its exclusion of important bodies of social scientific research, pragmatism’s caution, respect for standards of evidence, and… Read More »

New consultancy – Strengthening the Europe-Africa Digital Ecosystem Through Increased R&I Cooperation

Dingwall Enterprises have been appointed to provide independent ethics advice to the EU HORIZON Coordination and Support Action SEADE (Strengthening the Europe-Africa Digital Ecosystem Through Increased R&I Cooperation) The SEADE project provides fundamental and tangible support services to the Research and Innovation (R&I) ecosystems of Europe (EU) and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), undertaking human-centred research, programme… Read More »

How Intelligent is Artificial Intelligence?

Today’s moral panic is about AI and machine learning. Governments around the world are hastening to adopt positions and regulate what they are told is a potentially existential threat to humanity – and certainly to a lot of middle class voters in service occupations. However, it is notable that most of the hype is coming… Read More »