For an ethics of generosity: Values for ethnography in a time of regulatory ethics

Abstract

The paper recommends a values-driven regeneration of research ethics for ethnography. In contrast to the current regulatory version of research ethics we propose a more subtle, field-oriented and traditional version, grounded in ethnographic experience. The paper is in three parts. The first part highlights the tacit assumptions of current systems of ethical approval for social research and their unintended and even perverse effects. Ethnography is the focus of the second part, where we highlight the distinctive issues for ethnographic research of current practice. In the final part we argue for a culture of ethnographic work grounded in an ethnographic understanding of social conduct and an ethic of generosity. Defined as a key-value for social sensitivity, this implies abandoning a procedural logic in favour of a values-based research culture faithful to the spirit of ethnographic and qualitative inquiry.