A Clash of Paradigms? Ethnography and Ethics Approval

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3306010
AutoresVirginia Mapedzahama (Western Sydney University), Tinashe Dune (0000-0001-5758-7525, Western Sydney University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2017
Volumen7
Número1
Fecha de publicación2017-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSAGE Open (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2158-2440 • E-ISSN: 2158-2440
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/2158244017697167
OpenAlexW2594007744
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas27

Obtaining ethics approval from university ethics committees is an important part of the research process in Australia and internationally. However, for researchers engaging in ethnographic work, obtaining ethics approval can (re)present significant hurdles to overcome in planning and facilitating a research project. In this article, we discuss potential challenges of reconciling the differences between institutional ethical review standards and the reality of ethnographic research. To do so, we reflect on our own experiences seeking ethics approval for a study on racialized visibility in rural nursing and another on the experiences of gender and sexuality diverse older women. We focus on two particular queries from ethics committees that reaffirm, for us, the incompatibility of biomedically informed ethics guidelines for naturalistic, ethnographic research. The article draws on four major points of contention regarding ethical approval processes designed for biomedical research and applied to social research. With respect to social research, these are (a) the associated risks, (b) predictive informed consent, (c) the power held by social researchers, and (d) biomedical emphasis on distance and universalism within the research relationship. This article suggests a reformulation of ethics guidelines and structures such that ethics committees are better able to engage with ethnographic (and other social) research. Although these debates and structural changes may not be relevant for all social or ethnographic research, exploring these ethical difficulties is paramount to redefining expectations and the positivist standards upon which social research is often measured

Alternative medicine · Engineering ethics · Ethnography · Information ethics · Informed consent · Meta-ethics · Nursing ethics · Political science · Positivism · Research ethics · Social research · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Ethics in Clinical Research · Law · Medicine · Migration, Health and Trauma · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics