Preregister Your Ethical Redlines: Vulnerable Populations, Policy Engagement, and the Perils of E-Hacking
Abstract
This essay makes a modest proposal: scholars who conduct fieldwork among vulnerable populations in fragile settings and who seek to influence policy should preregister their ethical redlines. Public preregistration can help avoid shifting ethical standards (e-hacking'') during fieldwork while improving our baseline risk and harm assessments among participants and their communities. The essay identifies the causes and varieties of
e-hacking’’ before providing a conceptual framework that helps researchers locate their ethical redlines at five different levels of analysis. Eight concrete suggestions are then provided for turning ethics into action to improve our efforts at both ethical fieldwork and policy engagement.
Link to resource: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4066842
Type of resources: Reading
Education level(s): College / Upper Division (Undergraduates), Graduate / Professional
Primary user(s): Student, Teacher
Subject area(s): Arts and Humanities, Social Science
Language(s): English