Everyday ethics: reflections on practice

Abstract

This introductory article frames the contributions for this issue on everyday ethics – moments that demand moral considerations and ethical choices that researchers encounter. We discuss concerns raised within the research community about the tendency to observe merely obligatory ethical procedures as outlined in Human Subjects Review regulations. We argue that these procedural rituals are manifestly insufficient for the moral challenges of ongoing and evolving research with people; we call for deeper engagement with the ethical dilemmas and defining moments that arise in the everyday conduct of research. We argue that considerations of ethics should be central to establishing the rigor or trustworthiness of research projects. Drawing on principles of systematic inquiry as transparent and grounded in conceptual reasoning, we describe research as praxis and the researcher as practitioner.

Keywords:

• ethics
• moral practitioner
• ethical reflexivity

Notes

1. This section is adapted from Rallis et al. (2008) and from Rallis, Rossman, and Gajda (2007).

2. We use relational matters to refer to long‐term, thoughtful, and sensitive relationships that build as part of sustained research.