36 Visual Research Ethics at the Crossroads1

Summary

This chapter provides an overview of the debates and practices that shape visual research ethics. We outline the requirements and expectations of institutional ethics review boards and legal frameworks, for example, regarding filming and photographing in public and issues of copyright. We contend that legal and institutional requirements should not be the sole determinants when making decisions about ethics, but rather must be situated within the research context and accommodated in a researcher's individual moral framework. We suggest that visual methods, and the data they produce, challenge some of the ethical practices associated with word- and number-based research, in particular around informed consent, anonymity, and confidentiality, and dissemination strategies. Overall, we argue that research ethics are contested, dynamic and contextual and, as such, are best approached through detailed understanding of the concrete, everyday situations in which they are applied. The title of this chapter ‘Visual research ethics at the crossroads’ is metaphorical, indicating that visual research has reached an important juncture and signifying it is timely to take stock and consider future directions in ethical practice.

Introduction

Conducting research ethically is considered the cornerstone of good practice and increasingly regarded as a professional necessity. A surge of interest in research ethics throughout Europe and North America has ensured that visual researchers need to act reflexively and critically in their ethical decision making in order to protect and enhance the reputation and integrity of visual research and protect respondents.2 This chapter examines the widespread proposition that the majority of visual researchers endeavor to act ethically but are unsure how this is achieved. The constitution of sound ethical practice is problematic because visual methods bring into view an array of issues previously under-examined. The intention is to provide a critical overview of the forces that shape ethical [Page 686]policies generally and then to focus in on situated exemplars of ethical practices and decision making by visual researchers. Rather than treating ethical dilemmas as troublesome we welcome them as an opportunity for reflexivity and, we contend, to contribute to improved visual methodologies.

The rapid growths over the past two decades of visual methods and of expectations of sound ethical practice have left some visual researchers less well prepared to absorb contemporary ethical debates and practices. Word- and number-based researchers adapt and refine existing standards or absorb and apply revised ethical frameworks with relative ease compared with more visual-centric researchers. Many visual researchers, both seasoned fieldworkers and relative newcomers, are ill at ease with the daunting possibility of devising, applying, and normalizing visual ethics in their own work. As a consequence, visual ethics, in the form of statutory and legal requirements, organizational and institutional needs, and guidelines for group and personal ethical decision making, are less well developed. Visual researchers, while feeling comfortable in the belief that visual methods are of fundamental importance to qualitative research, experience apprehension when the topic of ‘ethics’ is raised. Our monitoring of Internet discussion groups, such as VISCOM (International Visual Sociology Association) suggests there is a general concern across the visual research community that knowledge of visual ethics needs improving, that demand for training is not always met, and that exemplars of good practice are surprisingly sparse and rarely shared. Moreover, there is an anxiety that increasingly pervasive systems of ethical regulation will place visual research at a significant disadvantage, particularly in relation to issues of confidentiality and anonymity.

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