| dc.description.abstract | As global health researchers, we have long embraced the conviction that
the answers to complex problems of poverty and disease will reveal
themselves if only we apply enough scientific rigor. Yet, at the
community level, our group of American and Kenyan investigators has
begun to question whether our veneration of rigor is itself contributing
to the intractability of certain types of global health problems. Here, we
illustrate examples from our experience among the remote island
communities of Lake Victoria, Kenya, and join a chorus of emerging
voices, to examine how our culture of control as global health scientists
may marginalise truth-seekers and change-makers within communities
we seek to serve. More broadly, we seek to acknowledge the limitations
of control over truth that rigorous academic research affords. We
suggest that by relinquishing this pervasive illusion of control, we can
more fully appreciate complementary modes of answering important
questions that rely upon the intrinsic resourcefulness and creativity of
community-based enterprises taking place across sub-Saharan Africa.
While such inquiries may never solve all problems facing the diverse
populations of the continent, we advocate for a deeper appreciation of
the inherent capacity of adaptive, locally contextualised investigations to
identify meaningful and enduring solutions. | en_US |
