Ethics in Contemporary Ethnographic Research  Check-in [f366a7370d]

# Week 1

## Lecture

Location
: PdlC SC01

Readings
: - Mutaru (2018)
- Le Guin (1973)

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. Further, we will cover the current research ethics regime, where it comes from, what it entails, what it looks like in practice, and why it is at times contested.

**No tutorials yet this week.**

Homework
: - Find the ethics code of an anthropological or sociological association in your home country or region and read it with Mutaru (2018) at the back of your mind.
- Ask yourself: How well do you think the code could guide you when dealing with emerging ethical dilemmas? Jot down some notes.

# Week 4

## Lecture

Location
: Kamerlingh Onnes A1.44

Readings
: - Spitzberg et al. (2020)
- Spitzberg and Schneider (2022)

In this lecture, we will be joined by **Danny Spitzberg**.

About our guest speaker:

> [Danny Spitzberg](https://twitter.com/daspitzberg) leads user research for a cooperative economy. He currently works with [Turning Basin Labs](https://turningbasinlabs.com), a staffing and training cooperative, and is based in Oakland, California. Over the last few years he has created an original model for user- and worker-led co-design, a more efficient and lasting approach than mainstream inclusive design. Danny's background and training is in economic sociology and experimental research, and he has done applied research for over a decade.

>
> His work focuses on financial security, shared ownership, workforce development, and predistributive strategies of building wealth and power. Examples of participant-led research and design collaborations include conducting human factors field work in rural India around biomass energy; developing case studies and frameworks for credit unions and other member-led organizations worldwide to build shared leadership; and facilitating co-design for California ridehail drivers to effectively file over 5,000 wage claims through a custom-build spreadsheet tool and web app, which led to a $1.3 billion (!) suit filed by the state. With [Tech Workers Coalition](https://techworkerscoalition.org), Danny also co-edits a newsletter and curates an oral history project about international labor in and around the digital tech and software industry. Danny believes in stories that brings people together for collective action.
>
> For more information, consider viewing Danny's talk [How Not to be an Advocate](https://joinlearners.com/talk/how-not-to-be-an-advocate) (UXRConf 2021).

**No tutorials this week.**

Homework
: - Learn about the Crisis Text Line scandal by reading McNeil (2022) and at least one additional source of your own choice.
- Take some notes to prepare for the discussion in next week's tutorials.

# Week 5

## Lecture

Location
: Kamerlingh Onnes A1.44

Readings
: - Wouters (2017)
- [Leiden Manifesto](http://www.leidenmanifesto.org/) (2015)

For 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 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.

## Tutorial

Homework
: - Watch the [teaser video](https://pardoguerra.org/quantifiedscholar/) for Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra's _The Quantified Scholar_.
- Review your notes from last week's lecture and come prepared to discuss what you learned.

Tutorials will be an occasion to discuss specific cases and think through ethical implications of doing research both inside and outside of academic settings.

: - Fassin (2013) 
- Reyes (2017)
- Dilger et al. (2018)
- De Koning et al. (2019)

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 be a challenge to those conducting 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

Homework
: Review your notes and come prepared with questions.

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