By Vinh-Kim Nguyen (REACTing) - February 2025
Vinh-Kim Nguyen gives an overview of REACTing’s approach to anthropological research during the 2015 West African Ebola epidemic, demonstrating how clinical trials in outbreak settings offer unique opportunities for social science research. It also highlights the role of anthropologists in the implementation and uptake of clinical trials.
The focus of social sciences in clinical trials is on understanding the contemporary ways in which sociality is constituted. During the trials, the target communities were studied with as much interest as the trial infrastructure. Vinh-Kim highlights that there is no single “community.” There is a need, therefore, for anthropologists to be aware of the integral part they play and how the way in which they study actually engenders change.
The webinar recordings have been edited with the permission of the presenters and their respective working group network members for the purpose of publication on the GloPID-R website.
The GloPID-R Secretariat is a project which receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101094188.