{"title":"Pity the rich man","authors":"Ståle Wig","doi":"10.1111/1467-8322.12892","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8322.12892","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 <p>Across the world, economically marginalized people employ inventive strategies to encourage pedestrians to part with small sums of money by offering goods or services rather than directly requesting cash. People who use drugs wander urban streets selling magazines that some will buy but few will read. The homeless clean car windows that need no cleaning or provide token items instead of requesting donations because asking for money is contentious to the extent that selling stuff is not. Surveying existing ethnographic research, this article explores why. I analyse how informal income-generating practices adapt to the cultural assumptions of majority populations, including the notion that adults should become valuable through gainful employment and the idea that the unreturned gift humiliates givers and receivers.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":46293,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology Today","volume":"40 3","pages":"10-12"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-8322.12892","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141245614","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The bureaucratization of ethical integrity: Research ethics committees and imaginaries of risk","authors":"Cris Shore","doi":"10.1111/1467-8322.12872","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8322.12872","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 <p>This article critiques the expanding influence of research ethics committees (RECs) on social research, emphasizing their adverse effects on ethnographic methodologies. It argues that the bureaucratization of ethics, emphasizing compliance over contextual understanding, fundamentally misunderstands and impedes the nuanced nature of ethnographic work. Drawing on personal experiences and broader critiques, the article proposes the need for an alternative system that better accommodates the ethical complexities of social research, advocating for a more tailored approach that respects disciplinary methodologies and fosters genuine ethical engagement.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":46293,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology Today","volume":"40 2","pages":"8-10"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-8322.12872","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140333248","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Far from neutral: Research ethics committees, interdisciplinarity and fieldwork","authors":"Alexandra Halkias","doi":"10.1111/1467-8322.12876","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8322.12876","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 <p>This article critiques research ethics committees (RECs) for stifling social sciences research through rigid, one-size-fits-all ethics protocols. It highlights how these protocols, rooted in medical science perspectives, ignore the complexities of fieldwork, and prioritize institutional protection over knowledge advancement. The article illustrates the bureaucratic barriers to sociological and gender studies research through a case study involving fieldwork in a Greek hospital, showing how intersecting hierarchies in the field can render REC instruments invasive or moot. This article aims to enrich academic enquiry by acknowledging the diverse realities of research subjects and methodologies.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":46293,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology Today","volume":"40 2","pages":"21-24"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-8322.12876","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140333260","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Data mining, research ethics and practice: A view from Italy","authors":"Pietro Vereni","doi":"10.1111/1467-8322.12874","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8322.12874","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article explores the intersection of ethics and methodology in anthropological research, focusing on squats in Rome. It juxtaposes traditional ethnographic practices with contemporary ethical regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), to examine the nuanced relationship between researchers and their subjects in socially vulnerable and legally sensitive environments. The article critiques the reductionist view of ethnographic data as mere information to be extracted, arguing for a more engaged and reciprocal approach to anthropology that respects the agency of research subjects and emphasizes the co-production of knowledge. The document challenges conventional ethical frameworks and advocates for anthropology's commitment to listening and giving voice to marginalized communities through examining interactions with squatters and the Roma population. This enquiry scrutinizes the bureaucratic imposition on ethnographic research and reaffirms the discipline's role in contributing to a broader understanding of ethics in anthropological practice.</p>","PeriodicalId":46293,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology Today","volume":"40 2","pages":"14-17"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140333258","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Claiming breathing space for anthropology: Ethnographic responsibility in changing times","authors":"Evthymios Papataxiarchis","doi":"10.1111/1467-8322.12877","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8322.12877","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 <p>This article explores the challenges of maintaining ethical ethnographic practices amid the evolving bureaucratic regulations of research ethics. Drawing on the author's fieldwork experiences in Lesvos, Greece, during different periods, including the recent European ‘refugee crisis’, it reflects on the deep ethics inherent in the ethnographic encounter, shaped by long-term commitments and mutual exposure between the researcher and interlocutors. It critiques the bureaucratization of research ethics, arguing that legalistic guarantees, such as consent forms, undermine the nuanced, context-dependent nature of ethnographic work. By contrasting engagements with locals, activists and professional humanitarians, the author highlights the tensions between bureaucratic regulation and the need for a flexible, situated approach to ethics, calling for a critical assessment of ethical frameworks to preserve the ‘breathing space’ essential for responsible and insightful ethnography. The article advocates for resistance against one-size-fits-all ethical regulations constraining the rich potential of ethnographic research.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":46293,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology Today","volume":"40 2","pages":"25-30"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-8322.12877","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140333029","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Towards meaningful institutional change: Responsive bureaucracy and the governance of anthropological ethics","authors":"Timothy W. Elfenbein, Andrew S. Hoffman","doi":"10.1111/1467-8322.12871","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8322.12871","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 <p>This article advocates for a deeper engagement with the organizational structures that shape the governance of research ethics in anthropology. The authors argue that anthropological critiques of bureaucracy often sidestep the kinds of knowledge needed to pursue meaningful institutional change. They show how different regulatory dynamics and organizational arrangements across jurisdictions produce more or less responsive bureaucracies, comparing Institutional Review Boards in the United States with a case study of a European university's Ethics Review Committee. The authors suggest that such organizational understandings of bureaucratic processes can more meaningfully inform their redesign and contribute to developing more appropriately scaled ethics governance. In so doing, ethics review promises greater responsiveness to the particular demands of ethnographic research while remaining legible to regulatory stakeholders.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":46293,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology Today","volume":"40 2","pages":"4-7"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-8322.12871","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140333028","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Introduction to ethics in ethnography: The practical politics of predictability","authors":"Michael Herzfeld","doi":"10.1111/1467-8322.12870","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8322.12870","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This introduction to the ‘Ethics in ethnography’ special issue analyzes a crisis facing anthropology and especially ethnography, its primary research method. It highlights how an outdated and parochial ethics model, strengthened by fears of litigation and simplistic views of ethnographic research, threatens the spontaneity and investigative freedom necessary to the method's exploratory character. Contributors to the discussion explore the spectrum of strategies – from compromise to confrontation – for addressing the challenges posed by the bureaucratic oversight of ethics, unrealistic expectations of predictability in fieldwork, the impact of legitimate post-colonial critique and funding constraints on research freedom. They variously address the arbitrariness of bureaucratic procedures and the potential stifling of anthropological enquiry under the guise of ethical oversight. Drawing on the range of experience in anthropology and related fields represented here, the introduction opens the collection with a call to maintain ethical sensitivity while challenging attempts to police fieldwork using inappropriate conceptions of science and ethics.</p>","PeriodicalId":46293,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology Today","volume":"40 2","pages":"3-4"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140333027","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}