ethics and/or Ethics in Qualitative Social Research: Negotiating a Path around and between the Two

Abstract

This article explores the process of university Ethical Review both as lived experience and as part of institutional governance at an English university. The article uses Blackburn's distinction between ethics and Ethics (Ethics—A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001) as a framework to examine the themes of ‘vulnerability’, ‘power’ and ‘relationships’. These themes are analysed closely both within the institutional and the fieldwork contexts, attempting to include the perspectives of all those involved in the research ethics process. The article does not seek to draw any definitive conclusions but rather to stimulate, and add to the iterative discussion on the process of Ethical Review within institutions. Nonetheless, it does conclude by making some suggestions concerning the way in which the lived experience of ethics could better inform the practice of institutional Ethical Review.

Keywords:

• Ethics
• Ethics Education
• Social Work
• Vulnerability
• Power
• Relationships
• Identity

Notes

¹ We use ‘lived experience’ throughout this article to describe the vitality and spontaneity of what Guillemin and Gillam have called ‘ethically important moments’ (2004, p. 262) where difficulty, subtlety and unpredictability arise in practice in the doing of research.