Principal Investigator: Dr
Co-investigator: Dr Iliana Sarafian
Co-investigator: Dr Naomi Pendle
Co-investigator: Prof Marco Burgalassi
Overview
Ethnographies of (Dis)Engagement explores orientations towards COVID-19 vaccines among social groups who have reported some of the lowest rates of COVID-19 vaccine uptake across the G7, and the world.
We understand decisions to reject vaccinations as political manifestations linked to ongoing structural disempowerment, serving as both an articulation of state mistrust and reaction to discrimination. Additionally, we recognise that these neglected communities have long histories of navigating public health emergencies through particular channels, and trust particular types of information.
Research is based with Roma collectives living across Italy, migrants in Rome and at Italy’s border, and African diaspora communities in Canada. Among these diverse groups, we are motivated to direct contextualised evidence and methodologies to practical solutions within and beyond selected case studies.
Ethnographies of (Dis)Engagement provides a unique opportunity to unite ongoing research to understand COVID-19 responses through in-depth qualitative methods. To date, this type of evidence has been side-lined in governmental and EU decision-making, in favour of epidemiological approaches driven by statistics and models. Yet, prior experiences during Ebola, Polio, and HIV/AIDS epidemics have demonstrated the need for qualitative social science approaches to inform policymaking. We know that many hard-to-reach communities are excluded from national, and EU COVID-19 evidence bases, and none more so than the populations included within this proposed research.
As such, Ethnographies of (Dis)Engagement will: reverse significant ‘blind’ spots in national COVID-19 responses; raise the profile of ethnographic evidence in epidemic/ pandemic preparedness; and use this evidence to develop urgently needed recommendations to improve vaccine uptake among disenfranchised groups.
- To produce an understanding of the historical and contemporary contexts which lead to vaccine disengagement in specific communities across the G7, reversing chronic ‘blind spots’ in the EU and national COVID-19 response and vaccination campaigns.
- To produce community-specific recommendations for health interventions, including how to enhance understandings of who (dis)engaged communities do trust, to facilitate vaccine engagement across G7 countries
- To facilitate shared learning across diverse communities
- To make findings translatable to future pandemics, and to a broader engagement of communities with national health care systems
- To raise the profile of ethnography in shaping a post-COVID world, in so doing complementing and challenging epidemiological models which have dominated academic analyses of COVID-19 impacts