Consent requires a relationship: rethinking group consent and its timing in ethnographic research

ABSTRACT

Activist groups in ethnographic research re-negotiated our Ethics Committee’s expected order of securing consent before data collection, demonstrating the importance of researchers taking time to build relationships first. Although the Ethics Committee expected us to obtain group consent, the literature provides little guidance on how to do this. We developed a Memorandum of Understanding to summarize what forms of participant observation each group agreed to and how we would reciprocate. In this article, we (re)conceptualize consent, using analogies to consent in social contract theory and sexual relations to offer a critical perspective on what constitutes consent. We argue that taking time to build relationships before expecting research participants to consent and replacing informed consent with a negotiated agreement is a more ethical approach. We advocate for Ethics Committees to expand the meaning of ‘informed consent’ and review its timing, especially for ethnographic research with groups.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethics
• informed consent
• negotiated consent
• group consent
• ethnography
• critical approach to consent

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Karen Nairn

Karen Nairn’s current research is with young activists working for social change in Aotearoa New Zealand. She draws on her geography and education background to engage in interdisciplinary research with young people. The activism project builds on earlier research with young people who grew up during New Zealand’s economic reforms and explored their post-high school paths in the book Children of Rogernomics: A neoliberal generation leaves school.

Carisa R. Showden

Carisa R. Showden is a feminist political theorist and gender and politics scholar interested in issues at the intersection of sex, gender, public policy, and social justice. She is the author of Choices Women Make: Agency in Domestic Violence, Assisted Reproduction, and Sex Work (Minnesota); and co-author of Youth Who Trade Sex in the U.S.: Intersectionality, Agency, Vulnerability (Temple).

Judith Sligo

Judith Sligo’s research interests are primarily around children, young people, and family well-being particularly from a rights perspective. She works across several disciplines and has an interest in research methodologies, particularly qualitative and mixed methods research.

Kyle R. Matthews

Kyle R. Matthews is a PhD candidate researching youth activism and radicalism in Aotearoa New Zealand. He completed his Master’s in Peace and Conflict Studies, researching New Zealand peace histories and nonviolence theory. His current work explores how research on nonviolence is employed by Extinction Rebellion.

Joanna Kidman

Joanna Kidman is an indigenous Māori sociologist with tribal affiliations to Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Raukawa and Ngāti Toa. Her research interests are centred on the politics of indigeneity, Māori youth and decolonization. She has worked extensively in Māori communities across Aotearoa and with indigenous communities in central Taiwan. Her current research focuses on tribal memories of colonial violence.