What Do We Want to Tell? And to Whom Do We Wish to Tell It?: The Ethnographer's Ethical Dilemma Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • On the Run has spurred public debates about the ethics of ethnography. The controversy surrounds the fact that the sociologist/ethnographer drove a participant who was armed with a gun and the intent to commit murder. Ethical concerns are not new to ethnography. A previous generation of sociologists and ethnographers faced similar dilemmas: Did those who studied jazz bands also take drugs with the band members? Did those who studied gangs have knowledge of criminal activity to which the police might prefer to be privy? And yet, with new technologies and media-sharing platforms, ethnographers face increased scrutiny. The paper, as a result, focuses on debates regarding perennial ethical conundrums: what to tell, whether to tell, and to whom it might be told.

published proceedings

  • CULTURAL STUDIES-CRITICAL METHODOLOGIES

author list (cited authors)

  • Lincoln, Y. S.

citation count

  • 2

complete list of authors

  • Lincoln, Yvonna S

publication date

  • October 2020