With the primary objective of raising ethical sensibility, this volume details the ethical problems and dilemmas faced by applied social science researchers. Issues such as the use of deception, the participant's right to privacy and informed consent, and the potential harm of public disclosure are confronted. The author discusses the need to review ethical problems and their implications in the context of current ethical standards in both society and the scientific community. Case studies illustrate unanticipated ethical dilemmas which might emerge during a research project. Issues are presented and interpreted clearly so that their complexity can be penetrated and potential solutions envisioned. The volume also includes specific methodolo

Ethical responsibility has intellectual and practical implications for social researchers. This book explores a range of issues, theories and questions, enabling readers to reflect upon, understand and critique these with confidence. With helpful examples and a glossary of terms, it is essential reading for new and experienced researchers alike.

"This book examines the traditional areas of ethical concern such as privacy, confidentiality, professional controls and the use of covet methods. While it recognises the case against deception and covertness, it also challenges the assumption that open methods are always more virtuous and suggest the working out of a rationale of covert methods in ethical terms."--BOOK COVER.

Ethics in Social Research

The social sciences playa variety of multifaceted roles in the policymaking process. So varied are these roles, indeed, that it is futile to talk in the singular about the use of social science in policymaking, as if there were one constant relationship between two fixed and stable entities. Instead, to address this issue sensibly one must talk in the plural about uses of dif ferent modes of social scientific inquiry for different kinds of policies under various circumstances. In some cases, the influence of social scientific research is direct and tangible, and the connection between the find ings and the policy is easy to see. In other cases, perhaps most, its influence is indirect-one small piece in a larger mosaic of politics, bargaining, and compromise. Occasionally the findings of social scientific studies are explicitly drawn upon by policymakers in the formation, implementation, or evaluation of particular policies. More often, the categories and theoretical models of social science provide a general background orientation within which policymakers concep tualize problems and frame policy options. At times, the in fluence of social scientific work is cognitive and informational in nature; in other instances, policymakers use social science primarily for symbolic and political purposes in order to le gitimate preestablished goals and strategies. Nonetheless, amid this diversity and variety, troubling general questions persistently arise.

Brings together international scholars across the social and behavioural sciences and education to address those ethical issues that arise in the theory and practice of research within the technologically advancing and culturally complex world in which we live.

The book discusses the multiple issues of a digital research ethic in its interdisciplinary diversity. Digitization and mediatization alter social behavior and cultural traditions, thereby generating new objects of study and new research questions for the social sciences and humanities. Furthermore, mediatization and digitization increase the data volume and accessibility of (quantitative) research and proliferate methodological opportunities for scientific analyses. Hence, they profoundly affect research practices in multiple ways. While consequences concerning the subjects, objects, and addressees of research in the social sciences and humanities have rarely been reflected upon, this reflection lies at the center of the book.

This book is intended for social sciences researchers, in a variety of disciplines, including sociology, sociolinguistics, psychology, gerontology, and ethnography, who, during all stages of their research, be it quantitative or qualitative, are confronted with ethical dilemmas. As such, the chapters in this book provide the reader with examples of ethical reflection within the research process. The selection does not cover all the possible ethical issues they may face, but all of the chapters deal with the complex and unexpected, but fundamental, ethical questions that arise before, during and after fieldwork, and which do not always find clear guidance from the professional ethical codes they submit to. The studies in this book contribute to the present debate on ethical issues in social sciences research, in addition to problematizing a normative approach to ethics in social sciences research, and highlighting the importance of considering the social character of research activities when applying ethical guidelines or Research Ethic Committees’ prescriptive procedures. These essays document researchers’ practical moral reasoning in carrying out their research activities and in complying with the relevant legislation in relation to protecting research participants. Practices of ethics are identified and made describable; they are made the object of empirical documentation. This book shows that a new empirical approach to ethics as a discipline is emerging, having practices of ethics as its specific object of study.