title: Challenges in Exploratory Methods for Tuberculosis Research in South Africa.
abstract: Haunted by a legacy of apartheid governance that left millions in material poverty, South Africa has among the highest tuberculosis (TB) morbidity and mortality rates in the world. Our Social Markers of TB research project shared a vision of working with ethnographic research methods to understand TB-infected persons, their families, care providers, and social networks. We argue that felt and enacted TB stigma and the related HIV-TB stigma impaired our ability to collect the necessary data for a full portrait of TB-infected persons and their lived conditions. To circumvent this limitation, each researcher improvised and augmented conventional anthropological methods with more creative, directed, and at times destabilizing methods. We present three case studies as useful illustrations of the complexities and challenges we encountered in our attempts to conduct ethically sound TB research. We discuss the implications of our call for "improvisation" for the politics of research and ethical oversight.
authors.affiliation: University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa helen.macdonald@uct.ac.za.
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Macdonald
authors.affiliation: University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Abney
authors.affiliation: South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Amber
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Abrams
authors.affiliation: University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
authors.forename: Carina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Truyts
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research; D015658:HIV Infections; D006801:Humans; D011203:Poverty; D057545:Social Stigma; D013019:South Africa; D014376:Tuberculosis
keywords: Africa, South; anthropology; ethics / moral perspectives; exploratory methods; qualitative; stigma; tuberculosis (TB); visual methods