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Ethical escape routes for underground ethnographers
Author(s) -
KATZ JACK
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.2006.33.4.499
Subject(s) - principle of legality , ethnography , jurisdiction , waiver , participant observation , dilemma , limiting , sociology , research ethics , law , meaning (existential) , enforcement , engineering ethics , political science , social science , epistemology , anthropology , philosophy , mechanical engineering , engineering
Campus committees for supervising research ethics have developed rules and procedures that are indifferent to the emergent nature of ethnographic research. As a result, participant‐observing fieldworkers have appreciated that, independent of their ethical commitments, they cannot comply with official regulations. Resolution of the fieldworker's dilemma requires limiting review jurisdiction to funded studies; articulating the meaning of regulatory language defining auspices, exemptions, waiver, and research; and, above all, developing a culture of legality in campus ethics administration.