Norma Morris | University College London (original) (raw)

Papers by Norma Morris

Health Risk & Society, Jan 1, 2009

Reconfiguring Knowledge Production, 2010

Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 2001

Industry and Higher Education, 2002

... Page 2. with toughening global competition, have stimulated some notable industry investment ... more ... Page 2. with toughening global competition, have stimulated some notable industry investment in academia, and created opportunities for new companies to be spun off from university research (Steffensen et al, 2000; Webster, 1994; Segal Quince, 1985). ...

Qualitative health research, 2010

Although volunteer research subjects play a crucial role in the development of new health technol... more Although volunteer research subjects play a crucial role in the development of new health technologies, there have been relatively few in-depth studies of what participation in research means to them, and how they manage and make sense of the research encounter. Using constructivist perspectives we analyze data from 15 United States-based women taking part in tests of prototype instrumentation with potential for cancer diagnosis, comparing their responses with findings from a larger study (using the same interview methodology) on United Kingdom-based women participating in a similar program. For both groups the prime concerns emerging at interview related to the social rather than the physical challenges of participation. Both deployed similar discursive strategies to manage these tensions.We suggest that, at least within the limits of the kind of low-risk, nontherapeutic research studied, lessons can be drawn for research management, particularly the key role of the researcher-rese...

Biomedical Optics, 2008

We report findings of a study aiming to improve research process and outcomes by eliciting detail... more We report findings of a study aiming to improve research process and outcomes by eliciting detailed feedback on their experience from patient-volunteers taking part in early clinical evaluation of an optical breast imaging system.

The X-ray mammogram remains the cornerstone of most public health programmes aimed at the early d... more The X-ray mammogram remains the cornerstone of most public health programmes aimed at the early
diagnosis of breast cancer. Its virtues of safety, reliability and cheapness maintain its established position, and
Western social and cultural traditions of ambivalence to pain push any questions concerning the painfulness
of the procedure into the background. As part of a larger UK/USA-based empirical study, we undertook a
qualitative analysis of women’s accounts of pain experienced in mammograms and their reaction to it,
comparing their accounts with professional views and advice to patients as reflected in interviews, patient
leaflets and practice guidelines. We found considerable variability of experience and reaction to pain among
patients, and indications of similar variability in professionals’ views and practice, contrasting with a uniformly
reassuring message in formal institutional advice. We suggest that in practice professional workarounds
and patients’ felt obligation to tolerate pain bridge this gap, but that action to tackle the problems of
dropout and the emotional and operational costs of the current system is nonetheless needed. The need is for
concerned groups to combine to establish a serious and sustained programme of amelioration and innovative
technological development to assure more compassionate patient care and operational efficiency.

Social Science & Medicine, 2006

The paper focuses on how volunteer human subjects in research understand their own participation ... more The paper focuses on how volunteer human subjects in research understand their own participation in experimentation. We ask how they view their own role, the experimental setting, and how they articulate their understanding of the researcher-subject relationship. The empirical basis of the study is participant-observation and qualitative semi-structures interviews with volunteers in an experimental setting far removed from the more commonly studied randomised control trial (RCT), namely, the early stage testing of a prototype instrument for breast imaging. Analysis of this empirical data leads us to conclude that research subjects do not conform solely to one or other of the models of the researcher-subject relationship suggested in the literature. Rather, the interaction needs to be considered as a social situation which volunteer subjects actively negotiate in real time. They move through multiple roles and identities as part of the navigation through unfamiliar social territory, in order to establish a relationship in which they can feel socially comfortable and appropriately valued. r

Health Risk & Society, 2009

This paper analyses how talk between researchers and their volunteer human subjects works to cons... more This paper analyses how talk between researchers and their volunteer human subjects works to construct a safe and supportive environment in a laboratory setting where women volunteers participate in the development of a new imaging technology with potential for diagnosing breast cancer. Drawing on discourse analysis perspectives, we explore the work talk has to do in order to facilitate the instrumental, ethical and social dimensions of the interaction between researchers, volunteers and technology. An important cross-cutting theme is the use of various discursive strategies by both researchers and volunteers to manage perceptions of risk and construct a safe research environment, which will foster the active cooperation from volunteers necessary to achieve successful research outcomes. We draw attention to the interactive and two-way character of the technology talk observed in our research setting and how it co-produces researchers, volunteer subjects and the technology and supports the working social relationship between them that is vital to success.

Sociology of Health & Illness, 2010

Drawing on a research collaboration between a group of medical physicists and social scientists, ... more Drawing on a research collaboration between a group of medical physicists and social scientists, this paper aims to explore female volunteers’ experiences of participating in a project for developing a new breast disease diagnostic technology using an optical imaging system. In order to understand how these women make sense of being a volunteer, we examine the complexities of their experiences in this type of research setting through an empirically-based study involving participant observation and semi-structured interviews with the volunteers. Traditionally, volunteers are constructed as passive research material. In contrast, the women in our study are by no means docile bodies — but are active in deploying strategies that create opportunities to exert a level of control over perceived threats within the research encounter. We examine how volunteers translate these threats into ‘boundaries’ about what is and is not acceptable or permissible within this environment, paying particular attention to boundary setting around participation, and invasions of the body (such as pain, touch and exposure, and physical safety), and exploring the strategies volunteers draw on to counter perceived threats to their bodies.

We report preliminary findings from a study of patient-volunteer experience in a clinical trial o... more We report preliminary findings from a study of patient-volunteer experience in a clinical trial of optical mammography. We hypothesise that this qualitative data can usefully supplement the technical data collected during clinical tests and be of practical value in decision-making about design modifications, development priorities, and improving acceptability to patients. Findings from interviews with volunteers to date suggest that this method may establish new design criteria not deducible from routine data collection.

In this paper we aim to study the workings of a cross-disciplinary project in practice, and to re... more In this paper we aim to study the workings of a cross-disciplinary project in practice, and to relate our approach to other ways of achieving similar goals. By reference to our experience of a project to involve volunteer research subjects more actively in research on developing a new health technology, we explore the dynamics and evolution of the collaborative relationship between the medical physicists and social scientists as the project matured over a number of years. We discuss the tensions within the relationship and the capacity of a collaborative mode of working to sustain or constrain agendas relevant to science and society issues. We conclude by suggesting that we may be evolving towards a new mode of collaboration, similar to that starting to be institutionalised in some other natural science fi elds (nanotechnology, for example) and stimulated by shared aspirations towards embedding societal concerns in science.

Science & Public Policy, 2006

Science & Public Policy, 2003

... the research/policy interface within academic envi-ronments and the consequences for academic... more ... the research/policy interface within academic envi-ronments and the consequences for academic re-searchers and academic research. This study further demonstrates the limitations of the theory, and the need for adaptation to the special features of the science policy context. ...

Minerva, 2000

Government policies for science, usually incorporatingeconomic and social aims, are increasingly ... more Government policies for science, usually incorporatingeconomic and social aims, are increasingly influencing the contentand management of university research. This essay discusses theinfluence of selected science policies on individual researchersand group leaders. Within the limitations of a case study, itargues that policies that steer the content of research have agreater influence on research behaviour, than do policies relatedto overall research management. Increasing pressures for compliancewith mission-objectives point to the need for closer discussionbetween those who make policy decisions, and the wider researchcommunity.

Accountability in Research, 2006

The bias of volunteer concerns, which is understandable in terms of the different situations of r... more The bias of volunteer concerns, which is understandable in terms of the different situations of researchers and volunteers and the different tensions they create, has potential implications for the engagement of researchers with their research subjects and prevailing standards for the ethical and accountable conduct of research.

Research Policy, 2002

This study explores how university departments are changing under the influence of both internal ... more This study explores how university departments are changing under the influence of both internal and external pressures, including new paradigms for research, the growth of 'new managerialism' in universities, restructuring, increasingly prescriptive government policies for science, and driving forces within science itself.

Research Policy, 2000

This paper looks at the system for regulation and quality control of biological medicines as an e... more This paper looks at the system for regulation and quality control of biological medicines as an exemplar of how changes in governmentrindustryracademia relationships over a broader canvas may impinge on a government's regulatory function, especially where this function requires an ongoing commitment to science-based decision making and scientific research. It argues that the present system of biologicals regulation is predicated on a number of assumptions about the roles and Ž . relationships of government, industry and the research community necessary partners in regulation , many of which are now only dubiously valid. The regulatory system for biologicals has been subject to many of the same pressures that have stimulated change in governmentrindustryracademia relationships. In addition, new scientific developments have opened up new opportunities and new problems. This combination of factors is both forcing the pace of change, and increasing concerns that in the drift towards a more contemporary model of relationships, conflicts of interest may occur. Using published sources and the results of a postal survey, the paper explores the potential for conflict at various levels and Ž . discusses in more detail two issues independent testing and future location of research which highlight the concerns arising and suggest some potential policy options for the future. q