WilliamsMemo1



Williams 1/20/09 Memo 1 Project Hopping

__**Overall topic: Medical Technology Transfer for Sustainable Development**__ Doctors Without Borders (MSF); Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW); Engineers Without Borders (EWB); Engineering World Health (EWH) || # How do these organizations construct their identity as social entrepreneurs? Gaston "boundary organizations"; Geiryn "boundary theory"; Bordieu "boundary fields" || I assume that these organizations are very young in membership, and thus are more at ease and capable with information technology; I assume they use ICT extensively in communication. || Engineering Education (Social Entrepreneurship, Social Networking); Anthropology (Sustainability, World Development, Social Entrepreneurship); Policy (Appropriate Technology) || National Science Foundation (NSF), American Society of Engineering Educators (ASEE) || Unite for Sight; Himalayan Cataract Project; World Health Organization (WHO) Vision 2020 || # How do these organizations create an international 'text' for our understanding of eye disease under the mantle of 'preventable blindness'? Godisa Technologies Trust (Botswana); Fred Hollows Intraocular Lens Laboratory (Nepal) || # What is the relationship between manufacturing companies (which represent foreign direct investment in some cases, and, charitable NGOs in other cases) and the local community? University/ Teaching Hospitals (USA; Nepal; Botswana) || # How are "appropriate surgical techniques" defined and transferred between developed and developing countries?
 * **Topical Area?** || **Data Sets?** || **Social Theoretical Questions?** || **Why Now?** || **How Prepared?** || **Bias?** || **Fields of Work?** || **Funders?** ||
 * Sustainable Development through Professional Career NGOs || Participant Observation and Interviews of people in the following organizations:
 * 1) How do these organizations use transnational advocacy networks to determine which sites require their assistance?
 * 2) How do they determine which interventions are appropriate or not for a particular site?
 * 3) How do they determine whether a specified intervention will encourage sustainable economic development at a site? || Sustainability has been institutionalized/ co-opted according to Sean Ferguson (I need to ask what he has read about this.) I am interested in how these organizations are either (a) a part of this co-option or (b) responding to this co-option. These organizations are relatively new. They fulfill some sort of need in engineers that is not addressed through coursework and, or, professional careers || # Eglash's course "Self-Organization" (network theory/systems analysis)
 * 4) Some reading on social entrepreneurship and flexible economic networks
 * 5) Kinchy's course "Social Movements" (transnational advocacy networks)
 * 6) On listserv for EWH
 * 7) Re-read Willoughby, and other authors on appropriate technology
 * 8) Read STS-y literature on World Development
 * 9) Future Reading: Star "boundary objects";
 * **Topical Area?** || **Data Sets?** || **Social Theoretical Questions?** || **Why Now?** || **How Prepared?** || **Bias?** || **Fields of Work?** || **Funders?** ||
 * Medical Humani-tarianism through Disease Specific NGOs || Discourse Analysis (and maybe some archival analysis?!?) of the following organizations:
 * 1) How is this text disseminated/translated so that it becomes the dominant frame through which 'we' understand eye disease?
 * 2) How does this 'text' compete with more local understandings of eye disease, its origins, cures, and, the abled-ness of the affected? || I've looked at one or two papers from the '70s and they describe the problem of eye disease using the same or similar language; the magnitude of this disease, in terms of percentages has not responded to the efforts of the WHO and other organizations but has remained a large problem; perhaps there is something about the WHO, or, the language of the WHO that helps this to continue despite the enormous amounts of time, and money spent dealing with these diseases || # Initiated contact with Unite for Sight chapter at SUNY-Albany
 * 3) Future reading postcolonial texts: Appiah and other authors
 * 4) Future reading history of medical humanitarianism
 * 5) ???? Help??? || I am biased right now in that I believe that the WHO efforts have not incorporated enough indigenous knowledges and has not made use of local ways of disseminating information. || Policy (Expertise, SSK) || WHO, National Institutes of Health ||
 * **Topical Area?** || **Data Sets?** || **Social Theoretical Questions?** || **Why Now?** || **How Prepared?** || **Bias?** || **Fields of Work?** || **Funders?** ||
 * Self-sustaining entrepreneurial NGOs and Manufacturing of medical technologies || Participant Observation and Interviews of people in the following organizations:
 * 1) Is empowerment of minorities within the local community part of the success of these self-sustaining entrepreneurial NGOs
 * 2) Are flexibility and, resiliency components of success for non governmental organizations acting as social entrepreneurs? || It takes 10-15 years for a business to become "an overnight success". Godisa started date unknown. First mentioned in 1995. Hollows Lab started date unknown. First mentioned in the mid 90's. Now manufactures inexpensive lenses for countries in African and Eurasia. || # Initiated contact with holistic 'family of four' anthropologist at U. Montana who works in Nepal
 * 3) Superficial literature review of 3rd world innovative medical technologies (ST Global grad. Conference paper) || My bias is an idea I have that empowering local peoples makes medical humanitarian interventions more effective and innovative! || Business (Social Entrepreneurship), Management (Organizational Theory), Sociology (Public Engagement by Community Participation/ Empowerment) || World Bank, IMF, Social Science Research Council (SSRC) ||
 * **Topical Area?** || **Data Sets?** || **Social Theoretical Questions?** || **Why Now?** || **How Prepared?** || **Bias?** || **Fields of Work?** || **Funders?** ||
 * Knowledge and technology transfer for Surgical techniques || Participant Observation and Interviews of people in the following organizations:
 * 1) How is this knowledge and technology transfer intertwined with a culture and values transfer? || It takes 10-15 years to become "an overnight success". Dr. Ruit started working on SICS (a surgery type for cataracts) in the late 80's. Starting in the late 90's and early 00's there have been a lot of publications in European and USA medical journals from his research/surgical group. || # Currently taking Eglash's "Knowledge Worlds" course
 * 2) Case study on Nepal/Nigeria cataract surgeries (2008)
 * 3) Literature review of discussions of technology transfer (ST Global grad. Conference paper) || From my work on my case study paper, I believe that this knowledge transfer is not just one-way 1st World/3rd World, but instead is circular, where the second half of the circle (3rd World/1st World) is not acknowledged. || Sociology (SSK), Policy (Appropriate Technology) || NSF, NIH, Social Science Research Council (SSRC) ||