Toward a vulnerable ethics of research practice

Area of Science:

• Social Sciences
• Ethics
• Qualitative Research

Background:

• Ethnographic research presents unique ethical dilemmas, especially concerning participant confidentiality.
• Current research ethics review committees often rely on problematic, context-free assumptions.
• These assumptions include the existence of a single 'right answer' and an objective, detached viewpoint.

Purpose of the Study:

• To critically analyze the ethical assumptions guiding research ethics review committees.
• To explore the practical challenges of maintaining confidentiality in long-term ethnographic studies.
• To propose an alternative ethical framework for ethnographic research.

Main Methods:

• The study draws on fifteen years of ethnographic research with African American families in urban clinical settings.
• It includes an in-depth case study of an eight-year participant relationship.
• Philosophical literature on Aristotelian virtue ethics is reviewed.

Main Results:

• Standard ethical review assumptions are often inadequate for the complexities of ethnographic research.
• Context-free rules and the pursuit of objective detachment can hinder ethical practice.
• The case study highlights the difficulties in protecting confidentiality in ongoing relationships.

Conclusions:

• An alternative ethical framework, virtue ethics, offers a more nuanced approach to research ethics.
• Virtue ethics emphasizes character, practical wisdom, and contextual judgment.
• This framework may better address the ethical dilemmas inherent in ethnographic research.