***When applying, please highlight how you meet the requirements in your cover letter.***
This SSHRC-funded project brings a spotlight onto knowledge brokering, which is done by organizations or groups who de- and re-assemble existing knowledge into new forms, such as standards or guidelines. In this project, we will apply a post-structural methodology called “What’s the problem represented to be” to analyse texts. The texts in this case are those that guide clinicians on how to taper or deprescribe opioids for people with chronic pain. Texts such as clinical practice guidelines are written by knowledge brokers to support primary care clinicians. Opioid deprescribing is difficult and creates new problems in primary care. Clinicians report that the resources created by knowledge brokers are not helpful. Taking a critical, poststructuralist lens, this work sits at the nexus of the sociology of knowledge, governmentality, and the biopolitics of pain. This project will delve into this specific example of knowledge brokering, offering both substantive analyses of opioid deprescribing for health audiences, and contributing to the broader theoretical understanding of knowledge brokering.
The PHD student RA activities:
- join a small core research team to complete the project, which uses a poststructuralist methodology called 'What's the problem represented to be?'.
- work closely with the PI and another researcher to develop the collection of texts for the study, then immerse in the analysis of texts before co-writing manuscript(s) and presentation(s).
- light administrative and organizing tasks
- support clinician engagement activities during the project
- co-draft and co-author at least one manuscript for publication under expert supervision, and be funded to present the project at a national or international conference.
Requirements: PhD student; completed graduate qualitative methods course; familiar with post-structuralism; strong English communication, verbal and written; well organized; proficient in Microsoft 365
Assets: - prior experience writing for publication in the social sciences, humanities, or qualitative health fields - knowledge of health care systems - Completion of the TCPS2-CORE research ethics course
The RA will develop or enhance skills in: - critical textual analysis methodology - social theory-informed analysis - engagement strategies with health care professionals - writing for publication (sociological or interdisciplinary social sciences) (co-authorship, with expert guidance) - presenting research findings to both health care and social scientific audiences.
