Research ethics versus researcher ethics. Notes on the margins of a reading of Adrianna Surmiak’s book "Etyka badań jakościowych. Analiza doświadczeń badaczy w badaniach z osobami podatnymi na zranienie"

Abstract

The article presents the assumptions and results of the analyses carried out by Adrianna Surmiak as part of her research project, which was intended to confirm the thesis of the necessity of combining the rules of formal ethics with non-normative ethics in anthropological and sociological research, as well as the close relationship between research methodology and researchers’ ethical attitude choices. In her interviews with researchers, the author of the book under review focused on three main questions: 1. the relevance of ethical issues for the researcher at each stage of his/her study; 2. what practices are considered bad or good in the research of vulnerable people; 3. what concepts, beliefs and values can be derived from analyses of the specific ways in which researchers act during their research. The article includes comments on the conclusions of the research. Those comments concern the problems that arise as a consequence of the application of unwritten principles of non-normative ethics, in particular: the attitude of the researcher, the inclusion of non-scientific forms of cognition such as empathy or sensitivity in the process of cognition, and the issue of ensuring the well-being of the subjects.