Managing risk ethically in ethnography – confidentiality of a possibly easily identified agency

[Karen McPhail-Bell]

Hi all

I’ll be undertaking an ethnographic study with an Indigenous managed non-government organisation as part of my PhD in Australia. I’m working up the National Ethics Application Form, which is great for stimulating consideration regarding a range of risks.

One of these risks is the possibility that the agency can be identified in my write up. This risk is in part because it is quite a unique agency, and there aren’t many that would have its characteristics, but also because it is the only site in my ethnography (although I will also conduct focus groups with health promotion practitioners based in mainstream agencies).

I would appreciate hearing how others have approached this risk management issue in their research – including how you mitigated/minismised/managed the risk, monitored the risk and then reported/dealt with harm to participants resulting from those risks, if relevant.

Thank you in advance!
Karen

[Author]

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