Building Ethical Capacity for Collaborative Research

Abstract

Researchers collaborate for a number of reasons: clarify questions, sharpen arguments, influence practice, and many others. That said, collaborations—especially those that go beyond parallel writing on a single topic—bring normative frameworks into conflict. Values infuse the voluntary sector, nonprofit organizations, and our research on both, yet it is far from clear how we go about managing normative claims as a positive resource. This article discusses a process for developing moral pluralism into ethical capacity that advances collaborative work. The process consists of three cumulative stages: diagnosis, description, and mutual accommodation. The ethical capacity generated in these stages is not extrinsic but internal to collaboration. It allows us to develop and sustain the intellectual spaces in which assets and limitations interact to create knowledge that cannot be created by individuals working alone.