Resumen de Tuning to the Dance of Ethnography: Ethics during Situated Fieldwork in Single-Mother Child Protection Families
This article responds to the recently reemerged discussion of ethical ethnographic research by exposing and analyzing interrelated ethical, epistemological, and methodological dilemmas encountered in my ethnographic study of single-mother child protection families in the Netherlands. Systematically applying the current American Anthropological Association�s ethical principles to my research and using one particular day of fieldwork as an example, I illustrate that these anticipatory principles inadequately address emergent ethical dilemmas, as six core dimensions of ethnographic research ethics and integrity often still conflict with one another. Hence, I argue that the current AAA�s principles do not take into account that ethnographic research is simultaneously immersed in a dynamic context of relations and power hierarchies, embedded in theoretical reflexivity, and instrumentalized through the embodied subjectivity of the ethnographer. I draw lessons for a constructive discussion on how to deal with ethical concerns in ethnographic research by starting from ethnographic practice to expose, discuss, and critically engage with ethical issues.
