Researching the Market Violence of Counterfeit Medicines: Insights from Qualitative Camp

Abstract

This autoethnographic account is based on my PhD journey. I employ critical and interpretive approaches in studying burning issues in international business, society, and global health politics. My focus on the proliferation of pharmaceutical counterfeits can legitimately be considered a “commercial crime” investigation category. It is a reality that presents itself in a fashion akin to an evil fiction that afflicts millions of unsuspecting consumers. How did these overlooked underground shenanigans morph into a multibillion-dollar business, become a danger to population health, but hardly a tradegy for the perpetrators? For scholars, this type of business constitutes market violence. I used counterfeit medicines as an investigative lens to probe the role of major global health actors in combatting this menace by relying on institutional theory and stakeholder theory. The 2012 Nordic Qcamp was a metaphor for best practices in the art and science of conducting high-level qualitative research. Meeting with seasoned and budding scholars allowed for an in-depth ethnographic immersion into the phenomenon. In pedagogical terms, the course was constructively aligned. There were valuable lessons about treasuring and treating a wide variety of naturally occurring data as important evidence for unlocking hidden truths, uncovering the hocus-pocus of underground pharmaeutical business, connecting dots, magnifying the quasi invisible, shedding light on, and punching holes into prevailing orthodoxies while making sense of complex phenomena. All this, and a lot more are part of the critical quest to communicate purpose and inspire deeper understanding of the secrecy at work in global counterfeit markets.