Danger in the Field Ethics and Risk in Social Research PDF
Preview Danger in the Field Ethics and Risk in Social Research
DANGER IN THE FIELD The nature of qualitative inquiry means that researchers constantly have to deal with the unexpected, and all too often this includes coping with the presence of danger or risk. Danger in the Field is an innovative and lively analysis of the experience of different forms of danger in various qualitative research settings. Made up of researchers’ reflexive accounts of their own encounters with ‘danger’ while carrying out research, this book expands our common sense use of the term to encompass not just physical danger, but emotional, ethical and professional danger too. In addition the authors pay special attention to the gendered forms of danger implicit in the research process. From the physical danger of researching the night club ‘bouncer’ scene to the ethical dangers of participant observation in a home for older people, these contributions provide researchers and students with thought-provoking insights into the importance of a well-chosen research design. Geraldine Lee-Treweek is Lecturer in Sociology at the Department of Applied Social Science, Stirling University. Stephanie Linkogle is Lecturer in Sociology at the School of African and Asian Studies, University of Sussex. DANGER IN THE FIELD Risk and ethics in social research Edited by Geraldine Lee-Treweek and Stephanie Linkogle London and New York First published 2000 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, NewYork, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2001. © 2000 selection and editorial matter, Geraldine Lee-Treweek and Stephanie Linkogle; individual chapters the contributors All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Lee-Treweek, Geraldine, 1969– Danger in the field: risk and ethics in social research /Geraldine Lee-Treweek and Stephanie Linkogle. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Social scientists–Vocational guidance. 2. Social scientists–Professional ethics. 3. Social sciences– Research–Moral and ethical aspects. I. Linkogle, Stephanie. II.Title. H62.L419 2000 300'.7'2–dc21 00–035278 ISBN 0–415–19321–4 (hbk) ISBN 0–415–19322–2 (pbk) ISBN 0-203-13611-X Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-18539-0 (Glassbook Format) CONTENTS Notes on contributors vii Acknowledgements x Overview 1 GERALDINE LEE-TREWEEK AND STEPHANIE LINKOGLE 1 Putting danger in the frame 8 GERALDINE LEE-TREWEEK AND STEPHANIE LINKOGLE 2 Taking the flak: operational policing, fear and violence 26 LOUISE WESTMARLAND 3 Getting on the door and staying there: a covert participant observational study of bouncers 43 DAVID CALVEY 4 Negotiating danger in fieldwork on crime: a researcher’s tale 61 JANET JAMIESON 5 Bacteria and babies: a personal reflection on researcher risk in a hospital 72 GLORIA LANKSHEAR 6 Dangerous liaisons: auto/biography in research and research writing 91 GAYLE LETHERBY v CONTENTS 7 The insight of emotional danger: research experiences in a home for older people 114 GERALDINE LEE-TREWEEK 8 Relajo: danger in a crowd 132 STEPHANIE LINKOGLE 9 Body, career and community: the implications of researching dangerous groups 147 ARTHUR J. JIPSON AND CHAD E. LITTON 10 Whiteness: endangered knowledges, endangered species? 168 JOHN GABRIEL 11 Sheer foolishness: shifting definitions of danger in conducting and teaching ethnographic field research 181 JEFF D. PETERSON Postscript 197 GERALDINE LEE-TREWEEK AND STEPHANIE LINKOGLE Index 205 vi CONTRIBUTORS David Calvey is a Research Fellow at CRIC (ESRC Centre for Research on Innovation and Competition) and an Honorary Fellow in the Sociology Department at Manchester University. His research interests are in critical organisation studies, popular cultural studies, ethnomethodology and ethnography. He has held various lecturing and research positions at the Universities of Manchester, UMIST, Manchester Metropolitan University, Liverpool John Moores University and the University of Queensland, Australia. John Gabriel is Professor of Sociology and Head of Department of Sociology and Applied Social Studies at London Guildhall University. His recent publications include Racism, Culture, Markets (Routledge, 1994) and Whitewash (Routledge, 1998). Janet Jamieson is a Research Fellow at the Social Work Research Centre, University of Stirling. Working in the field of Social Work and Criminal Justice she has conducted research exploring young people’s understanding of offending, evaluative studies of four intensive probation projects and contributed to a study on the Scottish Children’s Hearing System. Her current research interests include young people and offending, women offenders, community and crime and the perspective and experiences of ethnic-minority young people in Glasgow on offending and victimisation. Arthur J. Jipson is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. His research interests include white ‘racialism’, hate crime, the American labour movement, Internet communication, the recording industry, and corporate crime. He has been conducting research on white ‘racialists’, militia members, and the American Patriot movement since 1993 and his current research projects include re-examining the State of Indiana versus Ford Motor Company case and the construction and utility of hate crime legislation. Dr Jipson has been published in vii CONTRIBUTORS Popular Music and Society and ChildNews and also has appeared on CNN, TBS and National Public Radio’s ‘All Things Considered’. Gloria Lankshear is a Research Fellow in Sociology at the University of Plymouth. She gained a degree in Social Policy and Administration and an MSc in Research Methods before undertaking research about community care. Her PhD focused on the barriers to the implementation of new technology in the National Health Service and this has led to her current research interest in new technology and its surveillance capabilities. Geraldine Lee-Treweek is Lecturer in Sociology at Stirling University with teaching and research interests in the fields of the sociology of health and illness and qualitative methodologies. Her current research focus is the study of the rehabilitation of people with back pain and she has an ongoing interest in the study of emotional labour in a variety of work settings. Gayle Letherby is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Coventry University. Her research and writing interests include all things methodological including auto/ biography and feminist research in theory and practice, motherhood/non-motherhood, kinship and the family and working and learning in higher education. Stephanie Linkogle is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Sussex in the School of African and Asian Studies. Her research interests include women’s popular movements in Central America, feminist movements, sociology of religion, research methodology, cultural studies and the media. Her publications include Gender, Practice and Faith in Nicaragua: Constructing the Popular and Making Common Sense (Avebury, 1996), and articles in Bulletin of Latin American Research, Race and Class and Sociological Research Online. Chad E. Litton is Assistant Professor of Sociology at South-Eastern Oklahoma State University. His primary interests lie in the study of new religious movements, ideology development, commodification of sexuality, extremist ideology, rural culture, and undergraduate education. Jeff D. Peterson is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon. His research includes work on squatters in the United States and urban social movements in Mexico. His most recently published article is ‘La Lucha Por El Ciudadano: Movimientos Sociales, Pronasol, y La Teoria de Nuevos Movimientos Sociales en Guadalajara, Mexico’ in Espiral No. 15 (May–Aug) 1999, University of Guadalajara. He also has an ongoing research project on transitions in Latino cultural identity in Oregon. Louise Westmarland is Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Teesside. Her PhD was an ethnographic study of gender and operational policing. She is interested in viii CONTRIBUTORS the ways force and strength interact with embodied authority in terms of the enactment of power, social control and masculinity. At present she is working on a book about gender and the covert worlds of surveillance teams and detective ix
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