Seduction of Ethics: Transforming the Social Sciences

by Will C. van den Hoonaard

Overview

Formal research-ethics committees in Canada now function as an industry, costing over thirty-five million dollars annually. The Seduction of Ethics argues that while ethics codes are alluring to the public, they fuel moral panic and increase demands for institutional accountability. Will C. van den Hoonaard explores the research-ethics review process itself by analysing the moral cosmology and practices of ethics committees regarding research and researchers.

The Seduction of Ethics also investigates how researchers have tailored their approaches in response to technical demands — leading social science disciplines to resemble each other more closely and lose the richness of their research. Van den Hoonaard reveals an idiosyncratic and inconsistent world in which researchers employ particular strategies of avoidance or partial or full compliance as they seek approval from ethics committees.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442694538
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	06/13/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	392
File size:	18 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Will C. van den Hoonaard is a professor emeritus in the Department of Sociology at the University of New Brunswick.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Figures and Tables

1. INTRODUCTION
   Premise of The Seduction of Ethics
   Ignorance and Scholarship
   The Scholarship on the Metabolism of Research-Ethics Review
   Conceptual Scheme
   Research Methods  
   Outline of The Seduction of Ethics
2. AN ARCHEOLOGY OF RESEARCH-ETHICS REVIEW
   Outside the Ethics Regime: What Drives the System of Ethics Review? 
   Inside the System: Institutionalization of Research-Ethics Review
3. THE CRITICISMS OF RESEARCH-ETHICS REVIEW
   Does the Ethics Regime Offer an Inappropriate Model for Social Science Research?
   Is Research Ethics Strangling Legitimate Research?
   Does Ethics Review Curtail Academic Freedom?
   Are Ethics Committees Bureaucracies?
   Does Ethics Review Develop and Maintain the Hegemony of Ethics Committees?
   Attempts to Negotiate the Two Worlds and Transcend the Criticisms: The Perspectives of Ethics Committees
4. WHAT IS THE NORMATIVE ETHICS FRAMEWORK FOR SOCIAL RESEARCHERS?  
   The ‘Subject’ in International and National Research-Ethics Codes
   Bursting the Contemporary Ethics Bubble: Three Case Studies 
5. STRUCTURE AND COMPOSITION OF RESEARCH-ETHICS COMMITTEES
   Ethics Committees as Part of the University
   Membership
   Jurisdictional Power and Independence
   Workload
6. THE MORAL COSMOLOGY OF THE ETHICS-REVIEW WORLD
   About Themselves
   About Researchers
   About Research Participants
7. PROCEDURAL ROUTINES: THE APPLICATION FORM AND THE CONSENT FORM
   The Application Form
   The Consent Form  
8. THE MEETING: MAKING AGENDAS AND DECISIONS
   Attendance and Membership
   The Career of the Agenda
   Paradigms and Perspectives that Shape the Conversation about Ethics
   Making Decisions without Principles
9. AN IDIOSYNCRATIC AND INCONSISTENTWORLD: COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN REBS AND RESEARCHERS
   Interpretation as the Basis of Idiosyncrasies and Inconsistencies
   Communications to Researchers/Language of (Dis)approval
   Content
   Language
   REB Communications inside the Larger Context of the Ethics Regime
10. THE UNDERLIFE OF RESEARCH-ETHICS REVIEW: PREPARING AN APPLICATION
    The ‘Hurt Perspective’
    The Researcher’s Moral Career
    Warming up (or Not) to Submitting the Proposal
    Preparing for the ‘News’
11. SECONDARY ADJUSTMENTS BY RESEARCHERS
    Reactions by Researchers to Ethics Reviews
    Applying Secondary Adjustments
    The Social Situation of Students in the Ethics-Review Process
12. THE BELEAGUERED METHODS
    General Considerations about Redirecting Research
    The Declining Use of Particular Methods
13. ON THEORY, TOPICS, AND FAVOURED  METHODS

What People are Saying About This

Tim McTiernan

‘The Seduction of Ethics is a significant work on a timely, important topic — namely, the nature, outcomes, and unintended consequences of social science research ethics reviews. Will C. van den Hoonaard uses evidence-based analysis to move dialogue on these concerns from the informal to the formal, which is important to the ongoing development of research management and oversight processes. The Seduction of Ethics provides much for researchers and those participating in and providing support for research ethics boards to chew on.’

Joan Sieber

‘Sociologist and ethnographer Will C. van den Hoonaard has contributed immensely to social science as a researcher, teacher, and participant in the drafting of ethical guidelines for governing social research. When such an eminent sociologist invites examination of ethics and regulations of social research, what better way to do so than to present an ethnography of problematic decisions by ethics committees? This book will be an invaluable resource to research administrators, ethics committees, social researchers, and commissions seeking to find ways to revise the regulatory structure in a way that is fair and conducive to the conduct of social research.’

Editorial Reviews

‘The Seduction of Ethics is a powerful, combined-arms assault on the system of ethics review of the social sciences.’—Zachary M. Schrag, Contemporary Sociology; vol 41:05:2012

‘Van den Hoonaard offers a remarkable study from the methodological point of view… Hoonaard’s contribution to the debate on approaches to ethical governance in the social sciences demarcates a new stage.’

—Igor Gontcharov, Transnational legal Theory, vol 4:01:2013

‘The Seduction of Ethics is an easily-read volume suitable for students, professionals, and even lay readers…The logic is flawless, the data are compelling, and – above-all the reader is left with a sense that things can be changed.’

—Jim Thomas, Symbolic Interaction, Online - February 2014
‘Seduction of Ethics is grounded in a solid theoretical and conceptual framework. The logic is flawless, the data are compelling, and above all the reader is left with a sense that things can be changed.’—Jim Thomas, Symbolic Interaction, vol 37:02:2014

‘The Seduction of Ethics is a significant work on a timely, important topic — namely, the nature, outcomes, and unintended consequences of social science research ethics reviews. Will C. van den Hoonaard uses evidence-based analysis to move dialogue on these concerns from the informal to the formal, which is important to the ongoing development of research management and oversight processes. The Seduction of Ethics provides much for researchers and those participating in and providing support for research ethics boards to chew on.’—Tim McTiernan, Assistant Vice-President, Government, Institutional, and Community Relations, University of Toronto; formerly Assistant Vice-President, Research and Executive Director, The Innovations Group, University of Toronto
‘Sociologist and ethnographer Will C. van den Hoonaard has contributed immensely to social science as a researcher, teacher, and participant in the drafting of ethical guidelines for governing social research. When such an eminent sociologist invites examination of ethics and regulations of social research, what better way to do so than to present an ethnography of problematic decisions by ethics committees? This book will be an invaluable resource to research administrators, ethics committees, social researchers, and commissions seeking to find ways to revise the regulatory structure in a way that is fair and conducive to the conduct of social research.’—Joan Sieber, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics

From the Publisher

‘The Seduction of Ethics is an easily-read volume suitable for students, professionals, and even lay readers…The logic is flawless, the data are compelling, and – above-all the reader is left with a sense that things can be changed.’

Symbolic Interaction, Online - February 2014 - Jim Thomas

‘The Seduction of Ethics is a powerful, combined-arms assault on the system of ethics review of the social sciences.’

Contemporary Sociology; vol 41:05:2012 - Zachary M. Schrag

‘Van den Hoonaard offers a remarkable study from the methodological point of view… Hoonaard’s contribution to the debate on approaches to ethical governance in the social sciences demarcates a new stage.’

Transnational legal Theory, vol 4:01:2013 - Igor Gontcharov