Between the Personal and the Professional: Ethical Challenges When Using Visual Ethnography to Understand Young People’s Use of Popular Visual Material Culture

Abstract

This article has two aims: (i) to examine a series of ethical challenges that arose during the course of a visual ethnography which sought to understand the ways in which young people use popular visual material culture in their everyday lives; and (ii) to look critically at ‘reciprocity’ and ‘self-reflexivity’ as two commonly cited strategies for supporting ethical ethnographic youth research. Using a self-reflexive style throughout, the author draws on Amit (2000) to underline a tension embedded in an assumed separation between the ‘field’ and ‘real’ life—or between the professional and the personal. It is argued that visual ethnography was the handmaiden to several ethical dilemmas that, though powerful, self-reflexivity and reciprocity failed to ameliorate. Furthermore, it is also argued that an enhancement of these strategies is essential for future ethical visual ethnographic youth research. Two possible ways forward, including arts-based research and ‘pedagogic visual ethnography’, are offered.