Ethical Dilemma
Last week I had a last minute decision to change subject for my ethnography. I had wanted to keep with the themes of disruption and urbanisation that I’ve explored at times throughout this tumblog and so I was observing a guerilla gardening community.
Whilst I was limiting the observations to publicly available discussion forums and twitter, I have always had a nagging doubt that there were ethical dilemmas given that guerilla gardening is not in fact legal! Although the main “community leader” had only ever been apprehended once in numerous years of seed bombing and planting, (and is in fact a fairly public figure in London); on balance I was not satisfied that no ‘harm’ would come to the other members should their communications be reported outside of their forum.
It was a difficult decision, especially given the dual factors of 1) this ‘community’ practised in full public view and 2) the audience to my ethnography will in all reality be read only by ededc. However, I decided that I could not take any risks with the liberty of any participants – no matter how overly dramatic that seems.
I think you are right to go with your gut feeling about this and it is such a worthwhile project it isn’t worth the risk. It was something I was worried about with my ethnography and it wasn’t a sensitive subject. I think this may be one of the issues with online studies – so much of it can be done by stealth you begin to feel like you are snooping t a feeling you are doing something you shouldn’t, sneaking through someone’s drawers! Even if we had permission I think it would still give that feeling as we are gaining a window into someone’s life and making assumptions based upon what we are reading often in an uncontexualised way.
Hi Anabel, thanks for your post. It was very reassuring when I was in the thick of trying to make up time!
And I absolutely agree with you. Whatever we see will be a snapshot, even if we are doing a not-so-micro study and so care must be taken.