| This thesis examines conceptual foundations of the governance of human subjects research in Canada, focusing on the Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS), and Research Ethics Boards (REB, also known as IRB, and REC in other countries). It explores the logic of the harmonization and standardization of the approaches to ethical oversight and its impact on non-biomedical academic research. Chapter One examines the draft of the second edition of the TCPS, analyzing the changes in the approach to ethical oversight, and response of the Interagency Advisory Panel on Research Ethics (PRE) to the problems that followed the adoption of the TCPS in 1998. Chapter Two considers REB as an experts system, examining the elements of new governance in the TCPS and their limited success. Chapter Three discusses the most prominent features of the REB's conceptual framework - positivism, universalism, reductionism, and solipsism. |
