Researching the Powerful
A Call for the Reconstruction of Research Ethics
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2391929 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Anne Alvesalo-Kuusi (0000-0002-6203-9192, University of Turku), David Whyte (0009-0008-4830-5010) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 136-152 |
| Publication date | 2018-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociological Research Online (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1360-7804 • E-ISSN: 1360-7804 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1360780417747000 |
| OpenAlex | W2776693260 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 25 |
| References cited | 31 |
This article analyses the contradictions that arise when the widely accepted ethical principles we use as social researchers are applied in the context of researching the powerful. It does so in order to encourage a debate about how we might reconstruct a workable ethical framework in the context of 'studying up'. This article draws on prolonged debates on the relevance and appropriateness of ethical codes, exploring how the concepts and the guidelines that codify them might be reframed. The people thus analyses the dominant ethical principles adopted in professional codes of conduct, foregrounding a twin obsession with professional (the social scientist) and institutional (the university) autonomy that hampers the development of a research ethics that meaningfully contributes to enhancing the public or common interest. Instead, we argue for a reconstruction of social science research ethics based on a collectivist understanding of the 'public interest' that is not exclusively defined for and by the academy but connects to all groups interested in knowing about the closed-off worlds of the powerful
Autonomy · Engineering ethics · Epistemology · Ethical code · Foregrounding · Political science · Research ethics · Sociology · Ethics in Clinical Research · Law · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics · Social Science and Policy Research
Laudable Relations
Blocking the Exit
Komplekse hensyn – mesoetiske udfordringer og håndteringer
Predictive policing in action
Funding the colonial tax haven
The hole in the ground that cannot be moved’
Secrecy, coercion and deception in research on ‘terrorism’ and ‘extremism’
The issue of ’vulnerability’ in researching political elites
Crimes of the powerful in Latin America and the Caribbean
Negotiating conflicts of interest
Say my name? Anonymity or not in elite interviewing
The Ethics Chill
Research ethics and organizations
Navigating power dynamics in elite interviews
Performative Compliance and the State–Corporate Structuring of Neglect in a Residential Care Home for Older People
Corporate Tax Avoidance and Neutralization Techniques
Contesting coal and climate change using scale
If you didn't laugh, you'd cry
Speaking out or remaining silent
Amnesia and the erasure of structural racism in criminal justice professionals' accounts of the 2011 English disturbances
Interviewing respondents with a similar social status
Rethinking Elite Interviews Through Moments of Discomfort
On Conversation and Authorship
Revisiting the un/ethical
Institutional Ethics Challenges to Sex Work Researchers
Elites
Studying the Locally Powerful
Corporate elites as informants in qualitative international business research
Reinventing anthropology.
Field research
Anti-Politics Machine
The Theory Of The Leisure Class
Studying Elites Using Qualitative Methods
The Politics of Elite Culture
Studying Lawyers
Confidentiality, anonymity and power relations in elite interviewing
The Sociology of Corporate Crime
Getting Connected
The nature of United Nations bureaucracies
Dr Jekyl, Mr H(i)de
Problematising power relations in ‘elite’ interviews
The Crimes of Neo-Liberal Rule in Occupied Iraq
Methodological challenges posed in studying an elite in the field
When is disguise justified? Alternatives to covert participant observation
Collision and Collusion,—The Strange Case of Western Aid to Eastern Europe 1989–1998
Interviewing the Political Elite
Ethics Creep
Reframing Research Ethics
The Politics of Elite Culture
Social Scientists' Ethical Responsibilities to Superordinates
Methodological Issues in the Study of Bureaucratic Elites
A Comment on Disguised Observation in Sociology
On the ethics of interviewing for discourse analysis
| Unique citing works | 25 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3,57 |
| Citation span | 2019 - 2026 (8) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 22 |