Methods as Ethics

Twitter: @annettemarkhamWeb: annettemarkham.com

Annette Markham, PhD.

Professor MSOInformation Studies & Digital Design

Aarhus University

[Reverse engineering, reflexivity, and other

useful words for enacting ethical

methods]

Methods as Ethics

1) How we move

2) Why it matters

3) How to rethink and reconfigure

AoIR Ethics Committee

Microsoft Research Labs

“Creating Future Memories”

http://futuremaking.space

Shifting from statements to questions over a ten-year revision

Making abstract concepts like “ethics” more concrete like “avoiding the creepy factor”

Building experimental frameworks For citizens to control their own future memory possibilities

Creating more conscious responses and accounts

methods

Conditions for inquiry

Everyday practices of inquiry

methods

Conditions for inquiry

Everyday practices of inquiry

How are our research sensibilities being framed?

What frames are we teaching/training others to see?

ethics

Ethics as general principlesEthics as regulated norms

Ethics as a mindset or visionEthics as everyday practice

Ethics as general principlesEthics as regulated norms

Ethics as a mindset or vision

Ethics as everyday practice

The basic principles (research on humans)

Respect(for a person’s autonomy and rights)

Justice (fair distribution of benefits and risks; equitable treatment of all)

Beneficence (action for the good of others, do no harm)

The principles, operationalized in IRB*

Human Subjects

Informed Consent

Privacy (and data) Protection

Vulnerability

Risk / Benefit Ratio

*Institutional Research Boards

The principles, complicated by Internet

What is a Human Subject?

How do we (should we) get Informed Consent?

It’s (almost) impossible to protect privacy (PII)

Vulnerability often occurs after the fact

A Benefit/risks ratio is not a universal perspective

Shifting perspectives

Regulation [error]-driven approaches Concept [regulated]-driven approaches

Process-driven approaches

AoIR: process-driven ethics

AOIR Ethics Guidelines 2012

AOIR Ethics Guidelines 2012

Regulation (error)-driven approaches Concept (regulated)-driven approaches

Process (question)-driven approaches

How can we avoid the creepy factor?

How can we modify the concepts in order to match new complexities?What does the context require?

What is the goal of research in the first place?

Shifting perspectivesquestions

Regulation (error)-driven approaches Concept (regulated)-driven approaches

Process (question)-driven approaches

Future (impact)-oriented approaches

Shifting perspectives

methods

Conditions for inquiry

Everyday practices of inquiry

How are our research sensibilities being framed?

What frames are we teaching others to see?

ethics

impact

Future harms and possibilities based on our research practices

Motivation for doing research in the first place

Impact framework for ethics and methods

Impact Arena 1: Treatment of people (beyond human subject or participant)

Impact Arena 2: Use of data to make categorizations, inferences and conclusions.

Impact Arena 3: Unintended side effects of technology design, prototype testing, or research design

Impact Arena 4: Future possibilities and harms related to production and deployment, or dissemination

Impact framework for ethics and methods

Impact Arena 1: Treatment of people (beyond human subject or participant)

Impact Arena 2: Use of data to make categorizations, inferences and conclusions.

Impact Arena 3: Unintended side effects of technology design, prototype testing, or research design

Impact Arena 4: Future possibilities and harms related to production and deployment, or dissemination

We must take to task the myth that method purifies subjectivity.

Methods mold subjectivity, not into patterns that erase all emotions from the researchers’ sensing body but into patterns that produce emotions of a different order, and also into attitudes that too often privilege cognitively driven procedures and social research.

(remixed from James Davies, 2015, p. 13)

?

??

Methods as choices (at critical ethical junctures)

Decision Points Critical

Movements

Generating Questions

Determining case or field boundaries

Accessing Participants or

Materials

Sorting. Filtering, and selecting’what

counts’

Collecting Information

Using particular analytical tools

Representing self and other in

reports

Identifying objects of analysis

Sorting, thematizing, categorizing

Discarding information

Interpreting findings

Framing Knowledge for the audience

.

Granularity

Reverse Engineering

Remix or Bricolage

Reflexivity

Layered Accounts

Crystalization