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2 - Moral and ethical perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Pranee Liamputtong
Pranee Liamputtong
Affiliation:
La Trobe University, Victoria
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Summary

Many shameful events in the history of clinical research testify to the ease with which researcher-participants have exploited the vulnerability of oppressed or devalued members of society for the ultimate benefit of others.

(Baylis et al. 1998: 244)

The principle that underlies problems of ethics is respecting the humanity of others as one would have others respect one's own. If field [researchers] genuinely feel such respect for others, they are not likely to get into serous trouble. But if they do not feel such respect, then no matter how scrupulously they follow the letter of the written codes of professional ethics, or follow the recommended procedures of field [research] manuals, they will betray themselves all along the line in the little things.

(Goodenough 1980: 52)

Ethics is a set of moral principles that aim to prevent research participants from being harmed by the researcher and the research process. Ethical and moral responsibility is essential in any research, but when it comes to cross-cultural research it is even more important, as the researchers deal with individuals who have been exploited, who are more marginalised and vulnerable in so many ways. Often, they are people living in poverty, who do not have enough education to deal with the formality of research, and who feel too powerless to express their concerns or to resist the power of researchers.

Type
Chapter
Information
Performing Qualitative Cross-Cultural Research , pp. 31 - 57
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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References

Battiste, M. (2008). Research ethics for protecting indigenous knowledge and heritage. In Denzin, N. K., Lincoln, Y. S., & Smith, L. T. (Eds.), Handbook of critical and indigenous methodologies (pp. 497–509). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Caufield, C. (2006). Challenges for a North American doing research with traditional indigenous Guatemalan midwives. International Journal of Qualitative Methodology 5(4), Article 4. www. ualberta. ca/~iiqm/backissues/5_4/pdf/caufield. pdf Accessed: 10 January 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denzin, N. K., Lincoln, Y. S., & Smith, L. T. (Eds.) (2008). Handbook of critical and indigenous methodologies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.CrossRef
Price, D. (2004). Threatening anthropology: McCarthyism and the FBI's investigation of American anthropologists. Durham, MD: Duke University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rashid, S. F. (2007). Accessing married adolescent women: The realities of ethnographic research in an urban slum environment in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Field Methods 19(4), 369–383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trimble, J. E., & Fisher, C. B. (Eds.) (2006). The handbook of ethical research with ethnocultural populations and communities. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.CrossRef

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