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.
Author(s): Will C. van den Hoonaard
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Year: 2011
Language: English
Pages: 392
City: Toronto
Title
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
2. An Archeology of Research-Ethics Review
3. The Criticisms of Research-Ethics
Review
4. What Is the Normative Ethics Framework for Social Researchers?
5. Structure and Composition
of Research-Ethics Committees
6. The Moral Cosmology
of the Ethics-Review World
7. Procedural Routines: The Application
Form and the Consent Form
8. The Meeting: Making Agendas
and Decisions
9. An Idiosyncratic and Inconsistent
World: Communications between
REBs and Researchers
10. The Underlife of Research-Ethics
Review: Preparing an Application
11. Secondary Adjustments by Researchers
12. The Beleaguered Methods
13. On Theory, Topics,
and Favoured Methods
14. Macro-Structural Linkages
15. Will the Social Sciences Wither Away
or Is There an Alternative?
Appendix A: Methodology
Appendix B: Applications Considered
Annually by Selected Research Ethics Boards
in Canada
Appendix C: Samples of Communications
from Ethics Committees to Researchers*
Appendix D: Interview Guides
Notes
References
Index
