Backroom Research

It’s been touched on a little bit already in class and couple of the posts for this week, but I’m still having a hard time coming to terms with the idea of covert ethnographic studies.

I really enjoyed reading Doing Ethnography by Shaffir. The paper gave a clear and engaging introduction to a topic that I’m not all that familiar with. But…I have to admit that a couple of times throughout the reading I had to stop and re-read a section, just to make sure that I was following correctly. For example, on page 681 Shaffir says, “[b]ecause, by nature, I find outright dissimulation morally distasteful and difficult to execute, I was generally up-front with the Hasidim about my research interests”.  What this seems to imply to me is that if Shaffir was a) less against dissimulation, or b) if it was easier to execute, he would have considered being less upfront with the Hasidim about his research. Am I reading that correctly? That is the implication here, right?

We discussed in class the idea that participants might get used to the researcher, and the ethical implications of reminding them that you are performing research. I can see how there may be room for debate there. This idea of never being upfront with participants sounds like outright deception though. And this concept is repeated more than once in the paper. Shaffir discusses the idea that deception may be inherent in the ethnographic encounter (p. 682).  Is this a common assumption? I wonder how other ethnographers feel about the subject. Later in the paper, Shaffir casually mentions, “unless the field worker has used a covert approach, he or she always remains an outsider” (p.683).  I have personally always just assumed that the idea of ‘covert’ research – at least on the level where you are directly interacting with participants (telling an outright lie to them about your intentions), is just not something that is done. Now I’m wondering if it is simply a matter of the researcher’s thoughts on the subjects. Can something like this get funding? Is there a line? If so, where is it drawn?