Ensuring that sociological research complies with ethical standards requires considerable thought and attention. Not only does the researcher need to ensure safety to all participants in the process, they must also place themselves within that same continuum of harm and risk to ensure their own safety. University Research Ethics Boards (UREB) are carefully managed bureaucratic and peer governance bodies whose job it is to review and ensure that research done by academics lines up with professional and ethical standards and responsibilities. Negotiating these committees can sometimes be a daunting process, especially when the research participants in question come from the “edge”—those marginalized populations that are politically, socially and culturally complex and “messy”, such as drug users, individuals in conflict with the law, dissidents, the unruly and the subaltern. How can and should we proceed as researchers interested in learning about these communities and hearing their truths? Are there some subjects that are “off limits”? Who decides? How do we, as scholars of/at the edge continue to clarify and chart a way forward in this process?
Session Organizer: Alan Brown, PhD, Mount Saint Vincent University, alan.brown@msvu.ca
Session Co-organizer: Chris Tatham, University of Toronto, Chris.Tatham@utoronto.ca
Navigating Ethics @ The Edge: Case Studies
Session Code: RM1
Schedule, location, and presentations
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