Ethical Issues in Linguistic Fieldwork

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Ethical Issues in Linguistic Fieldwork

• Yuni Kim
• University of Manchester
• yuni.kim_at_manchester.ac.uk

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Ethical review

• Linguistic field research typically requires
  ethical approval
• Proposals must be submitted to university
  committees before any research starts
• Protection of human subjects
• What ethical problems do you need to address in
  your statement that is, in planning your
  research?

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Why me? Why my project?

• Some research clearly needs human subjects
  review testing novel medicines inducing
  distress in psychological studies
• Phonetics tracheal punctures
• Linguistic fieldwork? Talking to people?
• Ethical issues do require careful thought...
• even more so because fieldwork IS different,
  and standard protocols are not always appropriate

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Some basic principles

• Dont do anything against someones will
• Dont inconvenience people or do things that will
  make them regret working with you
• Reciprocity
• Do be sensitive to local culture and community
  dynamics, and your place in it
• Be respectful and keep an open mind
• Concrete ways of following these principles may
  be highly situation-specific

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The Planning Stage

• Deciding what language or language variety to
  work on
• Motivations general-linguistic, cultural,
  specific-linguistic... adventure...
• Will you and your work be welcome?
• Are your goals ethically feasible?
• Essential to make preliminary contacts and feel
  out the situation avoid pressuring
• Cf. colonialist/imperialist paradigm

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Permission to Research

• A privilege, not a right
• Will you need official consent from community
  leaders (e.g. chief, elders)?
• How do you build trust a prerequisite?
• Sincerity necessary, but usually not sufficient
• Intermediate contacts who are already known and
  trusted in the community
• Invest time building relationships with people
• Effects of power asymmetries

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Informed Consent

• When you find people willing to work with you,
  you must obtain informed consent
• Advance understanding of what you are doing, and
  what they will be asked to do
• Be specific
• Freedom to withdraw at any time
• Overt agreement to participate
• Must be documented

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Written vs. Oral Consent

• Ethical review committees often want to see a
  signed, contract-like document
• Not appropriate to many field situations
• What if people dont read and write?
• Can create rather than relieve suspicion -
  signing away rights
• Oral agreements may be held in higher esteem
• Reading a prepared statement?

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Obtaining Oral Consent

• Better have a natural conversation where you
  explain everything, ask for permission
• This is an important conversation to have its
  not just for the committee
• You need to judge the success of the
  communication, their ability to give consent
• You can have natural conversations first, then
  ask to record a less natural version

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Anonymity

• Generic human subjects protocols require you to
  guarantee anonymity
• Not always appropriate for fieldwork
• People may want to be acknowledged you may want
  to acknowledge them
• Alternatively, there may be cultural or personal
  reasons not to use names
• You need to find out what they want

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Making Recordings

• Always need informed consent to record
• Why would anyone do covert recording?
• People get unnatural when the mikes out
• Spontaneous events no time to stop and ask
• You dont know if theyd give permission, but
  its reeeaaally good/valuable material
• These reasons generally dont fly
• Use a less obtrusive microphone... be patient and
  continue to develop trust

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Making Recordings

• Unforeseen sensitive topics can come up
• Participants should be able to stop recording at
  any time, or ask to delete material after its
  been recorded
• Passers-by unintentional covert recording
• In such cases, it may be acceptable to get
  post-hoc consent, as soon as possible

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Access to Recordings

• What happens to the recordings?
• Who will be able to listen to them? Just you?
  Local people? Anyone at all?
• Archiving
• Public vs. restricted access
• Restrictions by type of material
• Try to foresee every possible future use or
  audience and find out how the person feels
• Later, it may be impossible to get permission

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Compensation

• How do you compensate people for the time and
  expertise they share with you?
• Monetary payment is common
• By the hour/session/etc.
• Presentation style matters
• Pay well, but not so much that it creates the
  potential for coercion
• When working with different people, keep
  fairness in mind

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Non-monetary compensation

• Some people may not want to accept money
• Other ways to compensate people
• Buying food, medicine
• Doing housework or running errands
• Find out how you can be useful
• You may want to do this even if you are also
  paying them

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Wider Considerations

• To what extent do ethics dictate the content of
  your research?
• What ethical obligations do you have to the
  community linguistic, sociopolitical?
• General behavior humility rarely regretted
• Unforeseen issues developing judgment
• Balancing the desire to share expertise with
  caution about imposing ideologies

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Thank you!