Costelloe-KuehnCommentMemo13-16Gareth

Brandon's comments for Gareth

Memo 13, research design grid
 * Why aren't the data sources listed in relation to the previous three columns? In my own table I stopped listing data sets after a while because I was repeating myself a lot, "ethnographic interviews with x, y, z... textual analysis of ...), but it probably is worth thinking about what key informants and texts might be most closely relevant to specific questions and aims.
 * the aims, questions, and emerging narratives don't always seem to line up. in the 1st row you seek to "define" "international health travel," ask related questions, but the narrative is about "better" care, changing practices, and liberalizing/privatizing. i could see how liberalizing could include making it easier to access medicine/surgery across borders, but it would be interesting to hear a narrative about possible definitions of "international health travel," and why these narratives matter: what work they do in the world, and in what ways.
 * "Liberalizing/privatizing healthcare may/maynot provide better care. While it may or may not be changing the way healthcare is conceived/practiced."
 * As you said in your presentation at MIT, this is the kind of question that will not be definitively answered "yes" or "no." So much of it depends on the "intertextually" (?) determined meaning/reading of "medical tourism," "healthcare," etc. So I see the potential value of wanting to come up with a "rigorous" definition, but are you also interested in mapping out the many different definitions used by various enunciatory communities?
 * In the second row i would like to hear emerging narratives on how local practices do differ and what forces seem to be particularly driving these differences. are laws forceful? are they enforced? are insurance company regimes very different? i guess i just want to hear more preliminary empirical data in the narrative section in general.

Memo 15 core categories
 * ah, here is the kid of guessing i was looking for in my comments above on emerging narratives.
 * it sounds like if one of your aims is to build a rigorous definition of "international health travel," or "medical tourism," this should probably be a core category that you fill in "densely" with empirical data.
 * although thinking of medical tourism as a "context" and not a "guiding concept" is an interesting way to approach the study. it recalls Kim's work on "figure/ground" shifts in figuring out situations. if you really do want to "avoid" medical tourism as a key category, maybe you should eliminate or downplay your 1st aim/questions in the research design grid?

Memo 14 emerging narratives
 * in the 1st paragraph, you seem to be implicitly focusing on countries that want to be "the same" as rich countries that set the standard. i would just suggest that doctors in some contexts may not want to be "the same," but actually frame their practices as "better" or "the best."
 * "it is important that the patient feel it is the same medicine that others receive." But some patients may not be content with what "others" receive. in the absence of a universal standard of "good," how do they decide? I know for other goods (designer jeans, say) price is associated with quality to the point that sometimes people will pick jeans because they are more expensive. if they went down in price, their quality may be perceived as less. Does this not happen in "medical tourism?"
 * Pretty random, maybe, but talk of "quality" always reminds me of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Not sure if you'd be interested in checking that out...

Memo 16 contributions
 * Methods
 * I'd chop up the 1st sentence a bit. It's a lot to take in in one go.
 * Overall, super clear and well-done, but perhaps try to weave in your particular project a bit more. e.g. Why is multi-sited ethnography important for medical tourism, specifically?
 * Empirical
 * looks great. but maybe make a bit less of a "background" and a bit more of your own particular questions. but maybe that is more for the conceptual/theoretical section...?
 * Conceptual/Theoretical
 * it might just be the formatting on the wiki, but i think it would be good to break this paragraph up a bit into more bite-sized chunks.
 * " MT offers a vantage point where theories of risk (Beck 1992) and experience of time (Lyotard 1984) are embodied in individual access to medical care."
 * Nice.
 * Practical
 * what other "policy studies" scholarship (specific texts) might your work be similar to in some ways?
 * personal/professional
 * i think the 1st 4 lines would fit better under "practical"