Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

As a medical anthropologist working between social sciences and medical sciences, and conducting research with patients and medical doctors, I use patchwork ethnography to explore the often "seam-full" encounters between distinct disciplinary norms and my interlocutors' diverse worldviews.

Paper long abstract

Building from my contribution to your forthcoming book "Patchwork Ethnography: A Methodological Guide", I explore how I conceptualised and used patchwork ethnography during my doctoral research on hormonal contraceptive use in the UK.

As a medical anthropologist working between social sciences and medical sciences, and conducting research with patients and medical doctors, I experienced many "seam-full" encounters between distinct disciplinary norms and my interlocutors' everyday experiences. My anthropological methods and norms were questioned by medical scientists who had final approval on my project design, and any resultant changes were consequently of concern to anthropologists and social scientists. It was a fraught territory, resulting in many awkward and ambivalent scenarios.

When I eventually began fieldwork, tensions persisted. Moving between medical clinics and patient-based advocacy spaces sometimes felt incongruent, where different and potentially polarizing narratives about hormonal contraceptives circulated.

I constantly found myself moving between "patches" of distinct disciplinary norms and interlocutors' diverse worldviews. Building on the vocabulary encouraged by patchwork ethnography, I view these (sometimes) distinct disciplines and viewpoints as patches and explore how I have sewn and walked seams between them to build the patchwork of my research landscape.