Beyond anonymity: temporality and the production of knowledge in a qualitative longitudinal study
Beyond anonymity: temporality and the production of knowledge in a qualitative longitudinal study
Anonymisation processes are an embedded, if contested, element of ethical research practice. Current debates, highlighting various challenges to anonymity, suggest the importance of situated ethics and negotiated solutions. However, the strategies adopted are necessarily mediated by the researcher’s epistemological positions. Longitudinal studies with their extended timeframes and intensive research relationships tend to amplify ethical dilemmas and highlight the contingency and fluidity of ethical processes. Here we explore how temporality intersects with epistemology in a qualitative longitudinal (QL) study of organisations located in a contemporary policy context. We reflect on the confidentiality and anonymity dilemmas that develop and change over time, the strategies adopted and the implications of these for the type of knowledge produced. We suggest that QL studies entail flexibility within epistemological frameworks. These issues have particular resonance and consequences for researchers in light of contemporary pressures around public scrutiny of academic performance and wider debates around public sociology.
qualitative longitudinal research, epistemology, anonymity, confidentiality, situated ethics
281-292
Taylor, Rebecca
5c52e191-4620-4218-8a61-926c62e087c5
1 April 2015
Taylor, Rebecca
5c52e191-4620-4218-8a61-926c62e087c5
Taylor, Rebecca
(2015)
Beyond anonymity: temporality and the production of knowledge in a qualitative longitudinal study.
[in special issue: New Frontiers in Qualitative Longitudinal Research]
International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 18 (3), .
(doi:10.1080/13645579.2015.1017901).
Abstract
Anonymisation processes are an embedded, if contested, element of ethical research practice. Current debates, highlighting various challenges to anonymity, suggest the importance of situated ethics and negotiated solutions. However, the strategies adopted are necessarily mediated by the researcher’s epistemological positions. Longitudinal studies with their extended timeframes and intensive research relationships tend to amplify ethical dilemmas and highlight the contingency and fluidity of ethical processes. Here we explore how temporality intersects with epistemology in a qualitative longitudinal (QL) study of organisations located in a contemporary policy context. We reflect on the confidentiality and anonymity dilemmas that develop and change over time, the strategies adopted and the implications of these for the type of knowledge produced. We suggest that QL studies entail flexibility within epistemological frameworks. These issues have particular resonance and consequences for researchers in light of contemporary pressures around public scrutiny of academic performance and wider debates around public sociology.
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Accepted/In Press date: 17 January 2015
Published date: 1 April 2015
Keywords:
qualitative longitudinal research, epistemology, anonymity, confidentiality, situated ethics
Organisations:
Social Sciences
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 375208
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/375208
ISSN: 1364-5579
PURE UUID: 5c904c9f-229d-4a50-979c-b445fc984ec7
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Date deposited: 16 Mar 2015 11:39
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:51
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