Codes and Dignity: Thinking about ethics in relation to research on violence

Abstract

Beginning with an anecdote concerning consent forms, the paper offers a critique of assumptions that legalistic protocols offer an adequate guarantee of ethical research. Drawing on research on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, it explores some of the complexities that research on violence brings to the fore. In the light of testifiers' concerns about the proliferation of their testimonies in contexts beyond their control, the paper proposes that ethical research rests on responsibility for the voice of others and responsiveness to the other; becoming what Alphonso Lingis (1994) describes as ‘an other for the other’.

Keywords:

• Ethics
• violence
• Truth and Reconciliation Commission
• legalism
• voice
• dignity
• responsiveness
• responsibility