[URBANTH-L]a question concerning methods/ethics
Bascom Guffin
mbguffin at ucdavis.edu
Wed Jul 29 22:09:43 EDT 2009
I would say that in the case of B (she/he doesn't care), I would still
anonymize the informant. If they specifically ask that their names be
mentioned, it becomes a tougher call. I know of one person who had DJs
as informants, and many of them asked that their real names (at least
their real DJ names) be used, because they saw it as an opportunity
for publicity. In this case, you might consider using their real names
to be a sort of reciprocation for the time and effort they've put in
to helping you out. But this researcher still ended up anonymizing
their sources, because informants made statements that the researcher
determined could be controversial. There may have been other aspects
to the researcher's reasoning as well. If the informants are public
figures, other considerations might also apply, in that there may be
good reason to use their real names, especially if it is overly
difficult to hide their identities. All this is off the top of my
head, and I am sure there are other members of the list who have given
this much deeper thought, and been directly faced with these practical
considerations. I too would be interested to hear what folks have to
say.
Best,
Bascom
----------------
Bascom Guffin | PhD Candidate
Department of Anthropology
University of California, Davis
mbguffin at ucdavis.edu
On Jul 24, 2009, at 9:41 AM, Fethi Keles wrote:
> Friends,
>
> I would like to receive opinions on the following issue, if possible.
>
> What most everyone does when we write things up is to change names
> and use pseudonyms etc. etc. But, what do you do if an informant a)
> specifically asks to be identified with his/her actual name in your
> study (book, article whatever) b) says s/he doesn't care/wouldn't
> mind if you were to use his/her actual name?
>
> I feel the answer to this must be more than 'well go ahead and do as
> s/he says', for there could be a whole lot of other implications if
> one does so. Any readings you would suggest? What courses of action
> would be on the table in the two cases above?
>
> Any thoughts will be appreciated. Thank you.
>
> Fethi Keles
> PhD Candidate in Cultural Anthropology
> Maxwell School
> _______________________________________________
> URBANTH-L mailing list
> URBANTH-L at lists.ysu.edu
> http://lists.ysu.edu/mailman/listinfo.cgi/urbanth-l
More information about the URBANTH-L
mailing list