title: Trust and regulatory organisations: the role of local knowledge and facework in research ethics review.
abstract: While trust is seen as central to most social relations, most writers, including sociologists of science, assume that modern trust relations--especially those in regulatory relationships - tend towards the impersonal. Drawing on ethnographic material from one kind of scientific oversight body--research ethics committees based in the UK NHS--this paper argues that interpersonal trust is crucial to regulatory decision-making and intimately bound up with the way in which these oversight bodies work, and that as such they build on, rather than challenge, the trust-based nature of the scientific community.
authors.affiliation: Cesagen, Cardiff School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK. hedgecoeam@cardiff.ac.uk
authors.forename: Adam M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Hedgecoe
mesh_terms: D000884:Anthropology, Cultural; D003657:Decision Making; D028744:Ethics Committees, Research; D004995:Ethics, Professional; D032984:Ethics, Research; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D009313:National Health Programs; D012107:Research Design; D035502:Trust; D006113:United Kingdom