Costelloe-KuehnCommentMemo4-9Logan

Questions:** Many of your social theoretical questions are about definitions. This can be useful for planning the project because it situates you along with other scholars interested in similar concepts (appropriate technology, transnational advocacy networks, social entrepreneurship, etc.). Some questions: who is doing the defining? what are the consequences of using one definition and not another? are there multiple competing definitions in the arenas you're looking at?
 * __Memo 5__

Is it NGOs that create the "dominant" frame through the creation of an "international text?" You ask how the NGO-created text might compete with "more local" understandings and it might also be useful to look at what macro-level discourses might also be in play, like neoliberalism.

When you ask how appropriate X are "defined and translated," do you mean translated between nation-state contexts? between the "north" and the "south?"

You seem to be interested in both the medical procedures and the technologies of "health informatics." Is the informational ecology around health in the examples you've looked at a "two way street?" one way? many ways? Are some of these NGOs developing innovative ways to make health informatics more democratic and responsive to diverse feedback? You speak a bit to this in the Bias section.

You mention participant-observation. In what ways might you be able to participate? Are you interested in combining advocacy work with research?
 * Data sets:**

I'm also mostly blanking on what to check out for "knowledge translation." It could be useful to look at the public understanding of science (PUS) stuff. Some survey work made everyday people look pretty dumb, but later stuff gets more interesting. Epstein's Impure Culture is partially about knowledge translation, the formation of "organic" intellectuals within the social movement, uneasy partnerships with scientists. Also, teaching/pedagogy is knowledge translation.
 * How Prepared:**

Social movements: collectives. There's Kim Fortun's stuff on "enunciatory communities" which contests some common-sense notions of collective advocacy work.

I don't know much about "organizational theory," but for flexibility you can look at SCOT stuff on the interpretive flexibility stage of technological design. Also, "appropriating technology" which can unsettle seemingly set politics of tech. For risk I would check out Ulrich Beck. Uncertainty: Ned Woodhouse's "Intelligent Trial and Error" is one way to proceed and relates to the "precautionary principle."

For re-reading design theory, Dean's review paper is a good refresher. Let me know if you can't find it, I have it around somewhere.

__**Memo 6:**__ I just noticed that you mention quite a bit of the "social movements" literature (generally sociological, the kind of stuff from Abby's class). Does this stuff move you? Or are you interested in social movements and advocacy and feel that you need to respond to these folks? Kim Fortun's book provides an example that is about advocacy, activism, social movements, but doesn't engage much in conversation with "social movements" studies, per se.

I think you could combine all three "abouts" in your dissertation.

__**Memo 7:**__

(1)HCP publishes a how-to-simplify-surgical procedures-and-make-them-less-expensive-for-the-developing-world-manual (distributed by the American Public Health Association)

Makes me think of design theory, especially universal design. Something designed for someone with a particular disability could end up being much better for the general population, or people with other disabilities. It's not just the third world that would benefit from simpler, less expensive surgical procedures. Building diversity into design can result in out of the box thinking and new innovations. Since you're interested in social movements and knowledge transfer, it might be worth looking into how strategies and tactics ("repertoires of contention" in SM theory) are also designed for one "fight" and picked up by others ("spillover").

There's quite a bit of detailed info. on political shifts in Nepal. Do you want to focus on Nepal for a long time or are you just trying to get an understanding of the context for this project?

__**Memo 8:**__ I'm curious as to how you traced out the social networks and found eight of Dr. Pokhrel's friends! Being "speculative and biased" at this stage might actually be a resource, as long as it is inciting new questions for you and not closing off possibilities prematurely.

__**Memo 9:**__ I'm curious about //why// so many of these facts are true and perhaps //how// they could change. Would you like to turn any of them into research questions?