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Research Ethics in an Unethical World: The Politics and Morality of Engaged Research

Author

Listed:
  • Claudio Morrison

    (Middlesex University, UK)

  • Devi Sacchetto

    (University of Padua, Italy)

Abstract

This article explores ethical dilemmas in researching the world of work. Recent contributions to Work, employment and society have highlighted challenges for engaged research. Based on the emancipatory epistemologies of Bourdieu, Gramsci and Burawoy, the authors examine moral challenges in workplace fieldwork, question the assumptions of mainstream ethics discourses and seek to identify an alternative approach. Instead of an ethics premised on a priori, universal precepts that treasure academic neutrality, this article recognises a morality that responds to the social context of research with participation and commitment. The reflection in this study is based on fieldwork conducted in the former Soviet Union. Transformation societies present challenges to participatory ethnography but simultaneously provide considerable opportunities for developing an ethics of truth. An approach that can guide engaged researchers through social conflict’s ‘messy’ reality should hinge on loyalty to the emancipation struggles of those engaged in it.

Suggested Citation

  • Claudio Morrison & Devi Sacchetto, 2018. "Research Ethics in an Unethical World: The Politics and Morality of Engaged Research," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 32(6), pages 1118-1129, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:32:y:2018:i:6:p:1118-1129
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017017726947
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Armstrong, Peter, 1991. "Contradiction and social dynamics in the capitalist agency relationship," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 1-25.
    2. Paul Edwards, 2015. "Industrial relations, critical social science and reform: I, principles of engagement," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 173-186, May.
    3. Bob Arnot, 1988. "Controlling Soviet Labour," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-09231-4.
    4. Ulrike Ziemer & Anton Popov, 2014. "Research Ethics and Moral Dilemmas of Social Research in Post-Socialist Europe and Beyond," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 19(4), pages 196-202, December.
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