Ethics in Contemporary Ethnographic Research  Check-in [d1fb615bfd]

# Assignment 1: Data Walk

The goal of this assignment is to sensitize you to the ways in which data is continually produced in contemporary social settings. In another context we might talk about the *opportunities* this holds for social researchers, many of whom have welcomed the "data deluge" as an opportunity to invent new ways of knowing the social. In the context of this class, however, we will mostly discuss its ethical implications---the ways in which the research process is shot through with ethical concerns when it takes place in data-saturated environments.

# Assignment 2: Hacking Ethnography

Working in groups of up to four students, you will design and produce a contribution to a collection on the theme of Hacking Ethnography. Your contribution can take one of several forms:

1. An instructional video (for instance, to show how to use a certain tool to secure your data).
2. A zine (for instance, to provide guidelines for how to protect the identities of your research participants).
3. A curated list of resouces (for instance, to help qualitative researchers understand potential risks of data-saturated environments).

# Assignment 3

This assignment consists of essay questions that will be posted to Brightspace ahead of the final tutorial session. In your answers to these questions, you will have the chance to demonstrate what you have learned about ethical concerns facing ethnographers by making connections between the course content (lectures and readings) and _Dealing in Desire_.

# Week 1

## Lecture

Contemporary ethnographic research continues the tradition of ethnographic inquiry in anthropology and sociology, but has some distinguishing characteristics. We will discuss the past and present of ethnographic research and how at every stage it involves decisions where ethical concerns are at stake, forcing us to ask what "the good" is in society and how we are meant to act.

## Tutorial

During tutorials, you will study and discuss ethics guidelines of various professional associations. You will also discuss controversies around anthropology's historical entanglement with colonial projects and their perduring implications for research ethics.

# Week 2

## Lecture

Whether we like it or not, we live in data-saturated environments. The lecture will present concepts for thinking about this situation, discuss specific cases that illustrate risks that result for individuals and groups, and discuss implications for the conduct of ethnographic research.

## Tutorial

During tutorials, you will discuss and plan the [first assignment](../assignments/1.md).

# Week 3

## Lecture

We have discussed challenges we face as we want to conduct ethnographic research in an ethical manner in today's world. But what can we do as researchers to put ethical principles into practice? How can we avoid causing harm and protect those in the field, ourselves included? We will draw on a range of practices and literatures to think through ways of "hacking" ethnography.

**No tutorials this week.**

# Week 4

**No lecture this week.**

## Tutorial

During tutorials, you will discuss and plan the [second assignment](../assignments/2.md). This will require forming groups with two or three other students in your tutorial group and coming up with a contribution to the Hacking Ethnography collection.

# Week 5

## Lecture

Readings
: tbd

During this session we are honored to welcome Professor Paul Wouters, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, who will speak from his vantage point about the ethics and politics of scientific knowledge production. Dean Wouters was a driving force behind the [Leiden Manifesto](http://www.leidenmanifesto.org/) on Research Metrics and, as a scholar of science and technology, he has studied important trends such as open science and mixed-methods research. He will also talk to us about issues that are unique to the Dutch social sciences and our own Faculty.

**No tutorials this week.**

# Week 6

## Lecture

Researchers have a responsibility to address issues of public concern, and critical scholars in particular have the ambition of making public interventions. This requires finding formats for scholarly communication that can reach the public, but also resisting tendencies that enclose scholarly knowledge behind paywalls or within proprietary systems. In that sense, ethnographers are champions of opening up our work. The demand to be "open" can also challenge the conduct of critical research, particularly for ethnographers who are unable to share their data or be totally transparent about their research process. We will discuss a variety of ethical issues that are at stake in this tension.

## Tutorial

During tutorials, you will discuss [assignment 3](../assignments/3.md).