Interview workshop from class:

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Some thoughts about ethics and ethnography, from Seth Kahn, “Putting Ethnographic Writing in Context,” in Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, vol. 2, ed. Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky (Anderson, SC: Parlor Press, 2011), pp.181-82.

Because you’re writing about real people in real life in your ethnography, your words have potentially profound consequences for the people you write about. I was devastated by the professor’s response to my paper. Somebody I respected was very upset about what I’d written, and beyond his hurt feelings, he was concerned that my piece might affect his professional life. And I would soon teach my first research-writing course, having just experienced first-hand what happens when an ethnographic writer upsets a participant. The professor whose course I’d studied made it quite clear that we were no longer friends, and only once since then have we had any contact at all. He felt betrayed, a term I borrow from composition researcher Thomas Newkirk’s essay, “Seduction and Betrayal in Qualitative Research.” Newkirk contends that because qualitative research is inductive (we don’t know what we’ll see until it happens), there’s no sure way to ensure that participants won’t be unhappy about what researchers find; moreover, informed consent not only can’t stop this from happening, but also may lull participants into a false sense of security during the project.

Because I wrote the paper for a class with no intention of ever publishing it, the professional consequences for the professor were minimal; that’s not to say, of course, that his feelings weren’t hurt by the experience. However, even your fieldnotes can have consequences, and you need to be very careful to protect the identities of your participants, even if you don’t expect anybody else to see what you write. One former student of mine left his notebook on a table at his site one afternoon, and when he returned five minutes later, two of his participants were reading it. One of them discovered that her boyfriend was cheating on her with another group member; within two days the group had disbanded, and one participant wound up in the hospital with injuries from the ensuing fight.

Situations this dramatic are rare; I’ve read about 700 ethnographies and count fewer than ten with the potential to endanger any of the participants. The point is that they can be, and you should take steps to minimize the danger: never use anybody’s real name or anything that easily identifies them; ask participants to check your notes about them for accuracy, and respect requests not to reveal certain details; make sure participants have signed consent forms. None of these is fail-safe, but they should all be habitual.

Here’s an excellent example of an ethical conundrum in sociology:

Alice Goffman (a while sociologist) lived in a poor, inner-city neighborhood and chronicled her participant-observation with a group of young black men. Her book, On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City, was well-received, and she gave a TEDTalk about it.

Dwayne Betts, a law student and former victim of the carceral state as well, wrote a critical response.