Risk and Representation in Research Ethics

This article examines Canadian policy governing the ethics of research involving Indigenous communities. Academics and community members collaborated in research to examine how best to apply the Tri-Council Policy Statement guidelines in a community with complex and multiple political and cultural j...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics
Main Authors: Brunger, Fern, Russell, Todd
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publications 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1556264615599687
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1556264615599687
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/1556264615599687
Description
Summary:This article examines Canadian policy governing the ethics of research involving Indigenous communities. Academics and community members collaborated in research to examine how best to apply the Tri-Council Policy Statement guidelines in a community with complex and multiple political and cultural jurisdictions. We examined issues of NunatuKavut (Southern Inuit) authority and representation in relation to governance of research in a context where community identity is complex and shifting, and new provincial legislation mandates centralized ethics review. We describe the politics of risk—the ways in which collective identity and research risks are co-constructed. Our case study illustrates that collective consent to research must emphasize shifting identity construction in relation to the particular risks and benefits invoked by the research question, to ascertain with which groups or individuals the negotiation of risk should take place in the first place. We conclude by describing a necessary re-imagining of policy governing research ethics involving Indigenous communities.