Abstract This paper critically interrogates the role of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) as ‘research ethics’ within the context of contemporary university-based social science research. While IRBs are ostensibly tasked with safeguarding ethical standards and participant welfare, I posit that they often reduce ethics to a perfunctory exercise as a move to innocence, serving as mechanisms […]
As a visual qualitative researcher, I believe in the value of methods that include images, such as photos, in the production and interpretation of knowledge (Glaw, Inder, Kable, & Hazelton, 2017). Photovoice in particular—a participatory visual qualitative method in which people take pictures to identify, discuss, and address their challenges (Wang & Burris, 1997)—changed my […]
Introduction The International Visual Sociology Association (IVSA) Code of Research Ethics and Guidelines sets forth the principles and ethical standards that underlie professional responsibilities doing visual research from a diversity of cultures, disciplinary orientations and methodological approaches, including but not limited to multi-national professions: sociology, anthropology, communications, art, history. These principles and standards should be […]
In the past decade, the global health community has recognized and increasingly challenged unfair knowledge practices to address epistemic injustice within the field. Bhakuni and Abimbola frame epistemic injustice as “pervasive wrongs related to knowledge production, use, and circulation in global health.” Structural barriers within academic publishing have resulted in perpetuating harmful power hierarchies in […]
Traditionally, the academic community has prioritized the academic value of research over its social impact and relevance. About a decade ago, a study estimated that up to 85% of biomedical research was avoidably wasted. This study highlighted that a key factor contributing to research waste was the limited utility and relevance of research for interest-holders, […]
Abstract Reflexivity is often framed in qualitative research as a means of enhancing methodological rigour and research quality. However, less attention has been paid to whether research that meets such standards is also ethically responsive to the needs of participants and communities. In this paper, I examine the role of reflexivity in advancing ethical research […]
In recent years, positionality/reflexivity statements have become increasingly common in global health, qualitative health research, and bioethics. Often framed as practices of reflexivity, recently they are also taken up as part of decolonial projects. Yet their growing prevalence invites a critical pause. I argue that thin positionality statements can function less as transformative practices and […]
Abstract Scientists have begun using AI agents in tasks such as reviewing the published literature, formulating hypotheses and subjecting them to virtual tests, modeling complex phenomena, and conducting experiments. Although AI agents are likely to enhance the productivity and efficiency of scientific inquiry, their deployment also creates risks for the research enterprise and society, including […]
Abstract This article explores how feminist ethics of care can inform and transform participatory design (PD) facilitation in urban planning. Drawing on two European case studies – InclusiveCity and Cities in Placemaking – the research examines how care-centred approaches challenge technocratic and transactional PD practices. Through an abductive process combining theory and empirical analysis, the […]
Abstract Current approaches to health system resilience tend to prioritize system-level outcomes (e.g. functionality) while overlooking key underlying social processes, contexts, and power-laden interactions through which resilience is produced. When community resilience is subsumed under health system resilience, without attending to distinct contextual factors, it can lead to fragmented approaches or maladaptive outcomes that misalign […]