[Air-l] ethnography and ethics

bakera at ohiou.edu bakera at ohiou.edu
Fri May 14 09:33:10 PDT 2004


To Jon (and all interested)
On your "love of truth" argument I think this has been wisely 
addressed by Lori, Ed, and Jennifer.  Temperamentally, I prefer overt 
research, and happily, this type gains easier approval from IRB's, 
and has advantages that Lori points out for getting at certain 
meanings through interviewing.   I would agree with Ed who says there 
could be cases more amenable to covert research, and add that I 
believe we as researchers usually engage informally in covert 
observation before deciding to research a particular area.

On this point:  "Privacy and public are social constructs and vague 
and often contradictory.  This is simply a 'fact' as far as i'm 
concerned, and i'm a bit surprised that some people don't percieve it 
-"  I am not sure we don't perceive  the vagueness, and yet there are 
other dimensions of this area to explore.  For example, does it 
matter how public or private the participants perceive the setting, 
and also, how do we resolve the almost inevitable conflict between 
the member's desire for privacy  and the researcher's desire for 
data?  I do agree that there is no one answer to these questions, and 
yet I believe they are worth pursuing.

--andrea baker (andee)




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