Ethical Issues and Risk in Fieldwork. Introduction

Abstract

In the introduction the authors propose framing ethical issues in terms of different risks which accompany fieldwork. This approach helps to organize ethical problems that emerge during qualitative research and directs our attention to the complementary issues of risk communication and ethical discourse within sociology.

It seems that one of the most important features of the relationship emerging during qualitative research is that they appear in changing circumstances, unique situations and have unexpected consequences both for individuals and collectivities. They proceed both within face-to-face contact and within a clash of different forms of social organization and ethical systems. When it is impossible for a researcher to deal with the differences between collectivities directly, he or she bears the burden of these differences on the personal level during the fieldwork. It must cause different kinds of cognitive, emotional, moral, and personal results for both the researchers and their informants. In the light of current knowledge the risk during fieldwork seems to be inevitable and must be accepted, but, still the impact of developing of ethical discourses on controlling this risk and on research organization (for example in selecting research subjects, research methods, and research funding politics) is unclear.