Editorial

Introduction

Research is an essential component of social justice, social welfare, community work, social policy, and social work. However, engaging in research processes inevitably brings up ethical complexities and challenges. From questions of power and privilege to issues of responsibility and relationships, ethical concerns permeate all stages of research. As researchers, we are constantly confronted with dilemmas and controversies that require us to make moral and ethical choices. In this special issue of Ethics and Social Welfare, we aim to promote exchange and discussion on issues, challenges, and problems arising from the conducting of research in these fields. Our goal is to explore the ethical dimensions of research in social justice, social welfare, community work, social policy, and related areas and to highlight the experiences, practices, and strategies that can help researchers conduct their work in a responsible and morally defensible manner. The ethical lens in research, we believe, must extend beyond legalistic and codified understanding of research ethics to address the socio-political embeddedness of ethical principles, and explore how research can serve as a means of providing knowledge, improving social justice, realizing human rights, and mobilizing social equality and inclusion. Researchers are social actors; their choices, decisions and conduct contribute to the generation and legitimation of knowledges and to the reproduction and/or transformation of existing social relations.

This special issue was initiated to provide a meeting place of cultures, practices, practitioners, and research communities. In many cultures, the ‘meeting place’ is a sacred space where people gather to share stories, connect with each other, and learn from one another. In the context of this special issue, we use the metaphor of the meeting place to explore the intersection of ethics and research in social justice, social welfare, community work, social policy, and social work. Conducting research in these fields means engaging with complex ethical issues that require careful consideration and reflection. As practitioners and academics, we have a responsibility to ensure that our research is conducted in a responsible and morally defensible manner, while also adhering to relevant ethical principles. This special issue of Ethics and Social Welfare provides a platform for researchers to come together, share their experiences and challenges, and exchange strategies for conducting research that is grounded in ethical principles and values. Through this ‘meeting place’, we hope to build a community of practice that is committed to advancing research that is socially just, inclusive, and transformative.

This meeting point of practice, ethics, discussions, and reflection is about an assembly of equals. It is a place to observe, listen, reflect, and celebrate. In creating this space, we have joined a variety of voices in the hope that what is shared may be amplified or acknowledged. In application, this special issue brings together a variety of article types: original articles, ‘ethics in practice’ articles, book reviews, and an extended discussion and commentary of a book review by the authors. Like the meeting places of many peoples, each brings their own concept of need or significance, each brings away what is necessary or interesting.

The meeting place

Jacqui O’Riordan, Felicity Daly, Cliona Loughnane, Carol Kelleher and Claire Edwards’ paper discusses the operationalizaton of feminist ethics of care values throughout a research project. It presents: Care Visions, an interdisciplinary research project aiming to reflect on care experiences during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, re-imagining care relations, practices, and policies in Ireland and internationally. This paper focuses on the early stages of the project's development, operationalizing and illustrating a feminist ethics of care in approaching its empirical studies, highlighting the importance of creating deliberative and participative spaces to enable diverse voices in care debates, and emphasizing the need for a dialogic and narrative form of practice. By exploring the challenges and opportunities of implementing a feminist ethics of care, this paper provides insights and lessons for researchers and practitioners in the field of ethics in research and care.

Approaching research ethics from a perspective of an extensive multinational project, the collaborative article by Elizabeth Hanson, Feylyn Lewis, Francesco Barbabella, Renske Hoefman, Giulia Casu, Licia Boccaletti, Agnes Leu, Valentina Hlebec, Irena Bolko, Sara Santini, Miriam Svensson, Saul Becker, and Lennart Magnusson presents ‘ME-WE’, a project that sought to understand aspects of adolescent young carers (AYC), their lives, and their challenges. Working across six countries, ethical challenges within the fieldwork are examined, and knowledge on responsible and ethical research, especially centered around vulnerable groups, is identified. The authors acknowledge the value of the ethical governance framework in encouraging and supporting the ethical reflection in the research practice. More importantly, they also affirm the significance and relevance of the participatory co-creation approach in guiding good ethical practice. In line with the ethos of this special issue, these authors argue as well that engaging in ethically responsible research should include actions (such as dissemination, advocacy, lobbying) that produce an impact and improve the lives of people, particularly those that are disadvantaged.

Siobhan O’Sullivan’s article follows the process and practice of community-based participatory research (CBPR) across the entire lifecycle of research activity. O’Sullivan places this within the context of two recent social policy projects in Ireland, recognizing that there are specific ethical concerns that arise in CBPR. Navigating necessary aspects of research within communities and peoples, the author discusses the ethics of engagement – asking who is engaged with and how the engagement is enabled and structured – and ethics of representation, reflecting on how the findings, participants, and communities are represented. Through two vignettes, the author provides a vivid demonstration of her arguments, inviting the reader to a learning exercise. O’Sullivan posits that research in this manner is organic and living, that it evolves with the ethical needs of participants and is reflective of relationships rather than explicit outputs.

Francesca Ribenfors and Lauren Blood’s paper examines the paternalistic frameworks that exist in dominant research practice, especially regarding confidentiality in populations that have been historically disenfranchized from agency and decision-making. The paper maintains that making choices and decisions in research relates to considering the primary duties of the researcher, the extent of their responsibilities and how boundaries of the role of the researcher are perceived. Particular attention in the discussion is given to how as researchers we construct harm, vulnerability and ‘best interests’, (and linked to those), with respect and autonomy. In keeping with the theme of a meeting place for this special issue, this article offers a place for reflection within current practice, asserts an ethical stance that values the participants and their authority in broader society that has typically removed or minimalized their autonomy.

Pam Joseph examines the challenges of maintaining anonymity in qualitative research involving populations with identifying circumstances or traits. Specifically, it outlines a two-phase written consent process used in response to challenges of possible identification of parents of high-support needs children. The paper argues for the need for ongoing re-examination of traditional strategies to ensure that ethical frameworks remain cohesive with research practice and recommends the development of culturally and contextually relevant approaches to enable the contribution of perspectives that might otherwise be marginalized, diminished, or omitted by existing frameworks. It highlights the need for ongoing examination of traditional ethical strategies to ensure they remain relevant in the face of emerging research methodologies and new technologies. It also underscores the importance of developing innovative and collaborative approaches to protect the interests of participants while enabling their voices to be heard.

Peter Blundell’s paper engages with the topic of professional boundaries through presenting a qualitative study that explored UK social workers’ understanding and experience of professional boundaries, particularly through studying the use and nature of humor appearing in social work practice. The presentation of this study serves as background to an autobiographical discussion about the positionality and reflexivity of the researcher, including the preparedness for what happens during the research encounter, as well as the dilemmas arising in regard to how (or, rather if at all) to respond to those events and utterances.

Ethics in practice section

From an ethics in practice application, Naseem S. Tayebi, Marilena von Köppen, Petra Plunger, Susanne Börner and Sarah Banks bring a perspective of participatory research working in refugee communities in Germany. Tayebi articulates their ethical challenges as a researcher working closely with these communities, negotiating personal and professional boundaries while navigating their own obligation and positionality. Two brief commentaries offer perspectives of other researchers, providing insights into application and accession of research in practice. Their own positionality, though outside, is based on their unique contexts but does not seek to diminish the praxis of the original researcher in the field.

Continuing with the ethics in practice application, Pradeep Narayanan, Pinky Shabangu, Michelle Brear, Barbara Groot, Charlotte van den Eijnde and Sarah Banks provide a case and commentary on ethical issues of local researchers working within their community for a public health goal. Based in rural India, this research case sought to examine vaccine hesitancy and promote up-take. The researchers, who were recruited by a not-for-profit organization, aimed to discover the reasons for vaccine hesitancy and encourage take-up, which raised issues around the roles and responsibilities of local researchers and the balance between societal protection and individual rights. Two commentaries explore the challenges of balancing ethics in public health, research, and participatory practices, with one commentary highlighting the issue of epistemic justice and the importance of hearing the voices of those who reject vaccination. These discussions shed light on the complexities of conducting ethical research in a public health context, with implications for research practices in various fields.

Book review and a discursive review between authors and reviewer

A valuable resource for questioning and examining the ethical aspects and dilemmas in social research, is, Ethics, ethnocentrism and social science research, by Divya Sharma (2021), that will be a particularly valuable read for research practitioners, academics and social research students. In the book review, Claire Dorrity observes that the book encourages the reader to reflect on the pervasiveness of colonial practices in research, the gaps in ethical research, and media representation flaws. In line with this special issue goals, this book promotes the need for ethical practices built on partnerships, solidarity and mutual exchange.

With one of the reviews – of the book Researching with Care: Applying Feminist Care Ethics to Research Practice, by Tula Brannelly and Marian Barnes (2022), we’ve taken an out-of-the-ordinary approach to how relevant books are presented in this journal. The reader (reviewer) engages in a conversation with the authors of the book to elucidate the processes and the challenges of research and explore the central theme of the book – research practices with feminist ethics of care – in a ‘trialog’ and dialogical manner. Over the course of two conversations, Brannelly and Barnes work is examined in situ with Antoine Rogers, Acting Director of the Urban Scholars Programme at Brunel University, creating a discursive and conversational response to the book and its context, implications, and applications. This allows for a Cinéma verité-like opportunity for the readers to observe the dialog between the three, authors Barnes and Brannelly, and reviewer Rogers. What emerges is a master class in practice, praxis, ethics, and agency in research. The tone, tense, and timbre of these dialogs has been preserved to maintain the authenticity of the three. These two conversations provide a robust opportunity for those engaging with ethical research practice to understand some of the discourse that occurs between practitioners along with their own processes for creating, maintaining, discarding, and re-visiting ethical frameworks.

Conclusion

Sharing ethical research experiences: towards a more just and inclusive research future

As we come to the end of this special issue, we are reminded of the importance of ethical research practices in social justice, social welfare, community work, social policy, and social work. Our contributors have highlighted the many challenges and dilemmas that researchers face and have provided valuable insights into how to navigate these complexities in a responsible and ethical manner. From the importance of building relationships of trust with research participants to the need to interrogate our own positions of power and privilege, the articles in this issue offer a range of perspectives and strategies for conducting research that is grounded in social justice, human rights, and inclusion. As we move forward, we must continue to engage in critical reflection and dialog on the ethical dimensions of research, recognizing that this work is essential to creating a more just and equitable future for all.

In conclusion, this special issue has highlighted the importance of recognizing and engaging with the ethical complexity of research in social justice, social welfare, community work, social policy, and social work. The articles in this special issue have shed light on the challenges and opportunities of conducting research in a responsible and morally defensible manner, while also interrogating the social, cultural, and political contexts that shape research practice. It is essential that we continue to grapple with the ethical dimensions of research, recognizing that this work is fundamental to advancing social justice, human rights, and inclusion. We hope that this special issue will serve as a catalyst for further discussion and reflection, and that it will inspire researchers to continue exploring and sharing their ethical research experiences in the ‘meeting place’ of this journal and beyond.