Ethical Issues Working with Vulnerable Populations

To engage ethically with vulnerable populations requires an investment of time and energy. Public scholars must examine critically what they think they know about the population with which they wish to work; they must also interrogate their relationship with the members of the community and remain committed to working collaboratively with all those involved. They must ensure that their project upholds the principles of justice, beneficence, and respect for the individual. They should draft an ethical protocol that outlines the way the group will address issues that emerge. They should also develop a process that can be used when unanticipated issues arise. Public scholars must be aware of the structural forces that challenge their ability to engage ethically with vulnerable populations. Those forces include institutional expectations/demands that scholars produce products that positively affect the image of the institution, the ways in which agencies and funders can exert influence on the direction of a project, and how broader cultural scripts may affect the way broader audiences evaluate the public scholarship project.