2024/06/11 by Paul Atkinson, Silvia Cataldi, David Wästerfors · 1 voice
Medicine · Social Sciences · #Ethics in Clinical Research #Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics #Social Science and Policy Research
paper · doi:10.1177/14687941241259978
openalex publication_date 2024/06/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/11
The paper recommends a values-driven regeneration of research ethics for ethnography. In contrast to the current regulatory version of research ethics we propose a more subtle, field-oriented and traditional version, grounded in ethnographic experience. The paper is in three parts. The first part highlights the tacit assumptions of current systems of ethical approval for social research and their unintended and even perverse effects. Ethnography is the focus of the second part, where we highlight the distinctive issues for ethnographic research of current practice. In the final part we argue for a culture of ethnographic work grounded in an ethnographic understanding of social conduct and an ethic of generosity. Defined as a key-value for social sensitivity, this implies abandoning a procedural logic in favour of a values-based research culture faithful to the spirit of ethnographic and qualitative inquiry.