Not All Research Environments are Created Equal: Structural Injustice in Low-Resourced Scientific Settings and Its Epistemic Implications

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper discusses three forms of structural injustice associated with disparities in the resources available to researchers, and the opportunity researchers have to pursue their scientific goals. These are: (1) resource injustice; (2) focus injustice; and (3) labour injustice. I argue that such structural injustice has significant epistemic implications, resulting in: shifts in research content; the exclusion of substantive portions of scientific community from contributing to knowledge production to the best of their abilities; the exclusion of specific methods and data sources from global scientific discourse, on grounds other than scientific quality and relevance; a loss of quality and reliability in processes and outcomes of inquiry; and the inability to implement openness and related forms of constructive scrutiny. To exemplify these forms of injustice and their epistemic implications, I discuss everyday challenges within life science sites in Italy, Ghana and Greece, as documented through ethnographic research. I conclude that structural injustice permeates the institutional and material conditions for the acquisition and evaluation of knowledge in many research locations around the globe, with damaging implications for epistemic practices; and that this prompts a reconceptualisation of what openness in research may mean and how this concept may be better implemented.