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www.bournemouth.ac.uk
Shades of grey in field research: Concealment, consent and the mobilities of qualitative inquiry
Peter Lugosi, PhD
Introduction
• Ethics and ethical approaches
• Covert research and covert methods (in principle)
• Mobilities
• Mobilities in qualitative inquiry: Revelation, concealment and consent (in practice)
Respectfor persons
and autonomy
JusticeFair distribution
of benefits; fairness ofprocesses
Fidelity andscientificintegrity
TrustOpen, honest,
inclusive relationships
Beneficenceand
nonmaleficence
EthicalPrinciples
Following Brewster Smith (2000)
Ethics as a prism
http://mirror-uk-rb1.gallery.hd.org/_exhibits/natural-science/prism-and-refraction-of-light-into-rainbow-AJHD.jpg
Ethics as a prism: Illumination or distortion?
TrustJustice
BeneficenceNonmaleficence
Respect for autonomyFidelity and integrity
Research aims and objectivesMethodsRelationshipsParticipantsOutcomesAudienceRisks/benefits/contributions
ReshapedResearch aims and objectivesMethodsRelationshipsParticipantsOutcomesAudienceRisks/benefits/contributions
Resolutions
• Systematise/rationalise research (Contractual relationships? Danger of “ethical deskilling? Dingwall, 1980)
• Communitarian(-ism) (Christians, 2000; Denzin, 1997)
• Reflexivity
• Ignore, deny, conceal
Ethics and covert research: competing perspectives
• Ethical idealism and institutional rules vs pragmatism and utilitarianism
• Absolutist vs processual perspectives on covert research
• Covert research – a distinct and consistent strategy?
• Covert methods – fieldwork involving some element of concealment
Locating and establishing types of covert research
• Active covert research
• Passive covert research
• Covertness/covert methods in overt research
Covert research (the literature)
• Methodological, ethical, professional critiques
• Emotional and psychological costs
• Troubling cases as points of reference (Milgram, Humphreys etc)
• Institutionally and professionally divisive term
Mobilities and the field
ie. the spatial nature of research
Mobilities ofrelationships
Mobilities of the research
Mobilities of the self
MOBILITIES Movement, Moorings,
Connections,Drivers/forces of restriction
See John Urry, Mimi Sheller and Kevin Hannam
Space and places of research
• Contexts for concealment and disclosure
• Relationships and/or encounters
• Spatial proximities
• Private and public spaces…and all in between
Explanations and cooperation
• Abrupt, incremental and indirect disclosure (see Lugosi, 2006)
• Clarity and adequacy of explanation (researching...studying...writing)
• Routines, spiels and scripts
• Maintaining informed consent over time
Relationships, affiliations and obligations
• Social and cultural proximities (e.g. class, gender, sexuality, likes/dislikes etc and relationships)
• Friends, colleagues, informants, participants, respondents or subjects?
• Revelations and confessions
• Co-creation (ideals and limitations)
Selves and the development of the study
• Exploratory research
• Motivations and (in)authentic selves
“To see is to share, to look is to take, to watch is to steal”
• New day, new research
Analysing, interpreting and communicating findings
• Challenges of publishing
• Anticipating feedback and reactions
• Implications of research and interpretation
Closing thoughts
Ethics as intellectual inquiry, institutional practice or a critical prism
It can be destructive and a threat: creating unnecessary boundaries and obstacles
It can also be a constructive process and opportunity: encouraging rigour and nuanced understanding of the research process, its stakeholders and outcomes
Questions of ethics are increasingly unavoidable
Closing thoughts
• Dangers of viewing research as a rational and stable process
• The (cliché of the) overt-covert “continuum”
• The forces/factors that move research from one end to the other
• Not either/or but both/and: all we have are shades of grey
• Be aware of institutional discourses; use existing literature/cases, consult with a range of colleagues, peers and “participants” and use these encounters as points of reference to develop your “moral career”
Further reading
Beauchamp, T., Faden, R., Wallace, J., & Walters, L. (Eds.). (1982). Ethical issues in social scientific research. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
Bulmer, M. (ed.) (1982) Social Research Ethics: An Examination of the Merits of Covert Participant Observation, London: Macmillan.
Brewster Smith (2000) Moral foundations in research with human participants. In B. Sales and S. Folkman (Eds.), Ethics in Research with Human Participants (pp. 3-10). Washington: APA.
Christians, C. G. (2000). Ethics and politics in qualitative research. In N. K. Denzin, & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed.) (pp. 133-155). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
de Laine, M. (2000) Fieldwork, Participation and Practice: Ethics and Dilemmas in Qualitative Research. London: Sage.
Duncombe, J., & Jessop, J. (2002). ‘Doing rapport’ and ethics of ‘faking friendship.’ In M. Mauthner, M. Birch, J. Jessop, & T. Miller (Eds.), Ethics in qualitative research (pp. 107-122). London: Sage.
Finch, J. (1984). It’s great to have someone to talk to: The ethics and politics of interviewing women. In C. Bell, & H. Roberts (Eds.), Social researching: Politics, problems, practice (pp. 70-87). London: Routledge.
Herrera, C. D. (1999). Two arguments for ‘covert research’ in social research. British Journal of Sociology, 50(2), 331-341.
Herrera, C. D. (2003). A clash of methodology and ethics in ‘undercover’ social science. Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 33(3), 351-362.
Further reading
Homan, R. (1991) The Ethics of Social Research. London: Longman.
Kimmel, A. J. (1996). Ethical Issues in Behavioral Research: A survey. Oxford: Blackwell.
Leo, R. A. (1995). Trial and tribulations: Courts, ethnography, and the need for an evidentiary privilege for academic researchers. The American Sociologist, 26(1), 113-134.
Lugosi, P. (2006) Between overt and covert research: Concealment and revelation in an ethnographic Study of commercial hospitality. Qualitative Inquiry, 12(3), 541-561.
Lugosi, P. (2008) Covert research. In L. Given (Ed.) SAGE Encyclopaedia of qualitative research methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Oakes, J. M. (2002). Risks and wrongs in social science research: An evaluator’s guide to the IRB. Evaluation Review, 26(5), 443-479.
Punch, M. (1986). The Politics and Ethics of Fieldwork. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Punch, M. (1994). Politics and ethics in qualitative research. In N. K. Denzin, & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 83-97). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Qualitative Inquiry (2007) Special issue on research ethics Volume 13, Number 3 (This journal has several other articles on the subject)
Shaffir, W. B. and Stebbins, R. A. (eds.) (1991) Experiencing Fieldwork: An Inside View of Qualitative Research, Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
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