Ethics and Emotions: A Migrant Researcher Doing Research among Romanian Migrants

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 176-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oana Romocea

This article explores both the ethical and emotional issues that emerge while conducting qualitative research as a Romanian migrant researcher among Romanian migrants settled in the UK. I specifically look at the transformative role played by emotions in the research process and how knowledge is generated by a permanent state of ‘objective reflexivity’ employed by the researcher and self-reflexivity on the part of the participants. While most emotions and ethical considerations transpire mainly from the interaction and the relationship established between the researcher and the participants, I highlight other aspects of fieldwork which also carry ethical decisions and emotional implications, even though not so evident at first sight. These include the relation between the researcher and the topic of the research, the terminology used, the language choice during the interview, and any potential legal aspects. I conclude that juggling both ethics and emotions does not compromise the scientific standard of the research, but rather adds a new dimension to doing research in one's own social context.

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Pechurina

This article discusses ethical decisions in the qualitative research of homes, with particular focus on a situation, in which a researcher studies his/her own migrant community. While exploring more common topics, such as negotiating access and receiving permission to photograph within participants’ homes, this article will also highlight issues that occur specifically within community-based ethnographic studies among Russian migrants. Using examples from the study of Russian immigrants’ homes in the UK, this article raises important questions of social positioning and power distribution within studied community. It will demonstrate the complexities of ethical decision making at different stages of the research process, which reflects the constantly changing relationship(s) between the cultural and social backgrounds and identities of researchers and participants. The insider and outsider role of the researcher is relative and the constant need to balance it, while simultaneously creating difficult ethical dilemmas, often reveals rich data and moves the whole research process forward.


This volume addresses the relationship between archaeologists and the dead, through the many dimensions of their relationships: in the field (through practical and legal issues), in the lab (through their analysis and interpretation), and in their written, visual and exhibitionary practice--disseminated to a variety of academic and public audiences. Written from a variety of perspectives, its authors address the experience, effect, ethical considerations, and cultural politics of working with mortuary archaeology. Whilst some papers reflect institutional or organizational approaches, others are more personal in their view: creating exciting and frank insights into contemporary issues that have hitherto often remained "unspoken" among the discipline. Reframing funerary archaeologists as "death-workers" of a kind, the contributors reflect on their own experience to provide both guidance and inspiration to future practitioners, arguing strongly that we have a central role to play in engaging the public with themes of mortality and commemoration, through the lens of the past. Spurred by the recent debates in the UK, papers from Scandinavia, Austria, Italy, the US, and the mid-Atlantic, frame these issues within a much wider international context that highlights the importance of cultural and historical context in which this work takes place.


2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie M. N. Glegg

Visual methods are gaining traction in qualitative research to support data generation, data analysis, and research dissemination. In this article, I propose a preliminary typology that categorizes five identified purposes of applying visual methods in qualitative interviews: to (a) enable communication, (b) represent the data, (c) enhance data quality and validity, (d) facilitate the relationship, and (e) effect change. Examples of visual tools are presented to demonstrate their utility in addressing these five aims. An existing ethical framework for visual tool use in qualitative research is then presented to structure a discussion on ethical considerations related to confidentiality, consent, representations and audiences, fuzzy boundaries between researchers and participants, authorship and ownership, and minimizing harm. Future directions include testing and extending the typology with respect to other visual methods and qualitative research processes, and research to evaluate the effectiveness of various visual tools at achieving the aims represented in the typology.


2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Young Jeong Kim

As public and academic attention to migration increases, methodological issues related to such research become increasingly important. Although previous efforts of scholars have provided excellent guidance concerning reflexivity and power relationships in research, these discussions have tended to assume a conventional hierarchy positioning and have been limited to the relationship between the researcher and the researched only. Yet, given the shift in the research environment stemming from the increasing mobility of scholars and the increasing interchange of knowledge, as well as emerging auto-ethnographic/auto-biographic research, it is now necessary to challenge these traditional assumptions. This article raises questions concerning the hierarchical relationship between researcher and researched and certain conceptions of the field of ethnography based on my own research experience regarding South Korean migrant women in the UK. Accordingly, with particular emphasis on the researcher’s role as a translator, this article suggests extending our consideration of such relationships to the readership, which constitutes an important, but under-considered, factor in the research process.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle Robyn Pilcher ◽  
Nick Eade

Purpose – Despite the ongoing research into visitor motivation in the live events and tourism industries, only a limited amount of research has examined the motivational factors exhibited in individual segments of society. The purpose of this paper was to identify a relationship between visitor demographics and visitor motivation, for the purpose of enhanced market research at folk festivals in the UK. Design/methodology/approach – In this research, a qualitative study of visitor demographics and their accompanying motivation to attend Purbeck Folk Festival is reported. The study was conducted in the form of interviews, which investigated the underlying motivation behind visitor attendance to Purbeck Folk Festival in 2014. The research process, guided by the literature of Robson (2011) and Bryman (2012), aimed to establish the extent to which visitor demographics did or did not impact visitor motivation to attend the event. Findings – The study revealed five motivational dimensions, and from this devised five core audience segments including: the escapists, the socialites, the family type, the experience seekers and the folkniks. This study highlights the correlation between visitor demographics and visitor motivation and suggests further applications of this research and similar research in the field of live events. The study contributes an insight into the audience of Purbeck Folk Festival and may be used to provide an understanding of audience profile and behaviour at folk festivals within the UK. Research limitations/implications – Due to the nature of the research, participants will be secured through non-probability quota sampling, which is a method of convenience. This approach may place limitations on the validity of the findings, as researcher bias may occur when selecting participants, for example, avoiding visitors who look intimidating or abnormal (Robson, 2011). The use of open-ended questions in the capacity of a greenfield event was identified as a potential difficulty, as participants are required to think about their answers and provide opinions, unlike a closed question method, which although quicker and easier, may not be as effective (Kumar, 2014). Therefore, to keep participants engaged and willing to provide further information, the interview design was kept short and questions are easily comprehendible. Originality/value – The research study reflects early the work of Mayo (Dickson, 1973), Maslow (1954) and Herzberg (1966), and builds on more recent literature by Kruger and Saayman (2012), which analysed the relationship between audience profile and motivation to attend.


2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sílvia Gomes ◽  
Vera Duarte

The main purpose of this article is to discuss some ethical-methodological issues associated with scientific research in confinement settings, particularly those that result from the relationship with the confined individual in the framework of qualitative research. Basing the reflection on empirical research developed by both authors in Portuguese confinement settings – prisons and youth educational centres – we examine the significant challenges and dilemmas this type of research entails, exploring the interface between procedural ethics and ethics in practice at three points in the analytical process: before, during and after data collection. This article illustrates the interplay between formal and informal procedures, and between the initial distancing and strangeness when making contact with confinement settings and their social actors and the institutional and relational dynamics that become ingrained in our everyday practice. Our goal is to give visibility to these institutional and relational dynamics and to reflect on the challenges experienced by those who enter confinement settings to do research, in an effort to make the research process more transparent and at the same time more reflexive. We end our reflection advocating more ethically committed and critical scientific research.


Author(s):  
Brian Spooner

In the early decades of the nineteenth century, the UK dispatched a number of envoys, agents and spies into the vast area between northern India and the Ottoman and Russian Empires. The information gathered by these adventurers provided the basis for British policy for the next hundred years, right down to the Great War of the twentieth century. Their publications have served as major sources of historical data, especially for Afghanistan, Iran and the area that later became Pakistan. But how their larger social context conditioned their work has not been examined sufficiently. In this chapter, I will focus on the adventures of Lieutenant Henry Pottinger, whose brief was one of the most challenging. However, he was well aware of being one of a number of Englishmen of different social classes who were doing similar things. What we learn about any one of them will shed additional light on the activities and significance of the work of the others, and in turn help us to understand the relationship between these countries and the West as it has evolved from the nineteenth century to the present day.


Author(s):  
Ahmad Tamrin Sikumbang ◽  
Zainun Zainun ◽  
Imam El Islamy

This study aims to see how subliminal dysfunction occurs in social media in an Islamic context. The research technique used is literature study, looking at various sources regarding subliminals and relating them to conditions in social media. This type of research is descriptive qualitative research, which is a research process to understand human or social problems by creating a comprehensive and complex picture presented in words, reporting detailed views obtained from information sources, and carried out in a different setting natural. While the approach used is phenomenology, which is to describe the reality that is happening without explaining the relationship between variables. The research results obtained are that Islam teaches its people to have ethics in carrying out all activities, including communication on social media. In the concept of Subliminal Message from hidden messages invites the public to never trust the information received from social media, before finding out the truth and accuracy of the message, from sources that can be trusted, supported, and related to the message. The conclusion in this research is that the Subliminal Message concept invites the public to never believe the information received from social media, before finding out the truth and accuracy of the message, from sources that can be trusted, supported, and related to the message.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Mason-Bish

This article examines how perceptions of interviewing elites influence the decisions made at every stage of the qualitative research process. It also reflects on issues of positionality and power which relate not only to the relationship between researcher and respondent but also to the subject matter of the research itself. As such I suggest that it is important to critically assess assumptions made about elites and to reflect on how the position of the researcher might impact upon the exchange and resultant findings. In essence what is found is that in discussing the construction of policy, a delicate balance is struck between positionality and research topic and that the policy narrative is a joint construction which is very much shaped by the identity and positionality of everyone involved.


Author(s):  
Candyce Kelshall

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the existing approaches to police accountability and how they may or may not address changing norms and expectations of civil society. It examines the role of independent police advisors and how they may contribute to bridging this divide. Design/Methodology/Approach The paper is a constructivist reflexive critique of the shortcomings of the mechanisms for policing accountability. It addresses human security considerations and the social contract in the existing populist charged social context and addresses other ways by which accountability may be achieved by challenging ideas and facilitating reconceptualization of accountability. Findings The advent of the independent advisor as employed by British Police forces is reviewed as a viable means of engaging communities to enable a constructive relationship built on accountability in advance of action rather than punitive recourse post crisis via complaint. Originality/Value An exploration of the relationship between the ‘critical friend’ Community engagement model of the UK independent police advisor and the role played by this approach in reconceptualizing police accountability. The author spent 10 years as an advisor.


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