S. Scott Graham

Multiple Ontologies in Pain Management: Toward a Postplural Rhetoric of Science

This article uses data obtained from a 2-year study—observation, survey, written- and verbal-artifact analysis, and interviews—of an interdisciplinary organization of pain management professionals to illustrate the analytic advantages of Mol and Latours multiple-ontologies theories over incommensurability theory in understanding interdisciplinary practice. We demonstrate that pain science and medicine encompass a variety of practices that transcend disciplinary boundaries in ways not accounted for with incommensurability theory. After explicating multiple ontology theory and illustrating its analytic potential, we conclude by recommending a postplural model for inquiry into rhetoric of science.

Statistical Genre Analysis: Toward Big Data Methodologies in Technical Communication

This article pilots a study in statistical genre analysis, a mixed-method approach for (a) identifying conventional responses as a statistical distribution within a big data set and (b) assessing which deviations from the conventional might be more effective for changes in audience, purpose, or context. The study assesses pharmaceutical sponsor presentations at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) drug advisory committee meetings. Preliminary findings indicate the need for changes to FDA conflict-of-interest policies.

Public voices in pharmaceutical deliberations: negotiating "clinical benefit" in the FDA's Avastin Hearing.

This article offers a hybrid rhetorical-qualitative discourse analysis of the FDA’s 2011 Avastin Hearing, which considered the revocation of the breast cancer indication for the popular cancer drug Avastin. We explore the multiplicity of stakeholders, the questions that motivated deliberations, and the kinds of evidence presented during the hearing. Pairing our findings with contemporary scholarship in rhetorical stasis theory, Mol’s (2002) construct of multiple ontologies, and Callon, Lascoumes, and Barthe’s (2011) “hybrid forums,” we demonstrate that the FDA’s deliberative procedures elides various sources of evidence and the potential multiplicity of definitions for “clinical benefit.” Our findings suggest that while the FDA invited multiple stakeholders to offer testimony, there are ways that the FDA might have more meaningfully incorporated public voices in the deliberative process. We conclude with suggestions for how a true hybrid forum might be deployed.

Stasis and Matters of Concern The Conviction of the L’Aquila Seven

On October 22, 2012, six scientists and one civil servant were convicted of manslaughter for failing to properly warn the people of L’Aquila, Italy, of an impending earthquake that resulted in over 300 deaths and 1,500 injuries. This article investigates a key event leading up to this conviction: An emergency meeting of scientists, civil servants, and politicians to determine whether or not an advanced warning should be issued to the residents of L’Aquila. The following investigation of this emergency meeting uses functional stasis analysis to identify the primary breakdown in deliberation that ultimately led to a message of calm and reassurance immediately prior to the devastating earthquake. The results provide insights into not only the events in L’Aquila but also broader issues of risk, uncertainty, fact, and value in science-policy deliberation.

Correcting Biased Cohen’s Kappa in NVivo

ABSTRACT This study demonstrates that NVivo, a popular research tool for content analysis, produces biased Cohen’s kappa as it calculates the reliability statistic at the character level, which is unsuitable for most content-analytic studies adopting a higher unit of analysis (e.g., sentence, paragraph). Based on empirical data and a statistical simulation, this study proposes a method of bias correction applicable to situations where two independent raters conduct binary coding.

Terminal node problems: ANT 2.0 and prescription drug labels

ABSTRACT This article examines prescription drug labels (PDLs) via an actor-network theory analysis to demonstrate current challenges with technical communication (TC) scholars’ appropriation of actor-network theory. The authors demonstrate that the complexity of the PDL network requires a more nuanced deployment of actor-network theory notions of durability and synchronicity. Specifically, the authors suggest that diachronic approaches to networks enable a more comprehensive understanding in ways that synchronic approaches cannot.

Catalyzing Transdisciplinarity: A Systems Ethnography of Cancer–Obesity Comorbidity and Risk Coincidence

Effectively addressing wicked health problems, that is, those arising from complex multifactorial biological and socio-economic causes, requires transdisciplinary action. However, a significant body of research points toward substantial difficulties in cultivating transdisciplinary collaboration. Accordingly, this article presents the results of a study that adapts Systems Ethnography and Qualitative Modeling (SEQM) in response to wicked health problems. SEQM protocols were designed to catalyze transdisciplinary responses to national defense concerns. We adapted these protocols to address cancer–obesity comorbidity and risk coincidence. In so doing, we conducted participant-observations and interviews with a diverse range of health care providers, community health educators, and health advocacy professionals who target either cancer or obesity. We then convened a transdisciplinary conference designed to catalyze a coordinated response. The findings offer productive insights into effective ways of catalyzing transdisciplinarity in addressing wicked health problems action and demonstrate the promise of SEQM for continued use in health care contexts.