RESEARCHERS AND THEIR SUBJECTS: ETHICS, POWER, KNOWLEDGE AND CONSENT

RESEARCHERS AND THEIR SUBJECTS, ETHICS, POWER, KNOWLEDGE
AND CONSENT

Edited by Marie Smyth and Emma Williamson

Policy Press

ISBN 1861345143, £23

Star Rating: 4/5

This is an unusual and fascinating book. It is not a textbook on
research methodology but would nonetheless be useful for
researchers, both those new to research activity and those who are
already established, writes Christina Mason.

The editors have brought together 11 chapters, written by
authors of different disciplines, on the ethical dilemmas
experienced in the conduct of their research projects, and how
these ethical challenges were met. Chapters vary in the way that
they present information.

For example, a chapter on domestic violence and research ethics
presents extracts from round table discussions while another gives
the author’s account of struggling to get a project through the
various hoops that are in the way. It is this that makes the book
fascinating, as each chapter is a well-told story of research
practice as it really is rather than as we might hope it to be.

Christina Mason is director of research, St Joseph’s
Hospice, London.

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