Controversies in qualitative research: Peter West-Oram on government influence in research

In October 2023, then-minister Michelle Donelan accused members of UK Research and Innovation's EDI committee of holding "extremist views" based on their social media comments on Palestine. She was subsequently forced to retract her statement, but the response from UKRI raised broader questions about whether and how government should be able to influence research. Peter and Sohail get into the details of this debate, covering culture wars, litigious article authors, and more.

Peter West-Oram is a Senior Lecturer in Bioethics at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School, where he works on questions of medical and public health ethics, and global health ethics and justice. His current research focuses on exploring the notion of 'reasonableness' in the context of health care provision.

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