Cover not available
Part of
Field Research on Translation and Interpreting
Edited by Regina Rogl, Daniela Schlager and Hanna Risku
[Benjamins Translation Library 165] 2025
► pp. 179–198

Chapter 8
Beyond ethical clearance in field research

In search of situated and reflexive ethics

ORCID logo | University of Geneva
Research ethics has gained much attention in the social sciences and translation and interpreting studies. Researchers are expected to pay greater attention to ethical issues when researching human beings, which increasingly means obtaining authorisation from a research ethics committee. While this rise of ethics can be seen as positive, ethical clearance entails risks for field researchers because it is prospective, standardised, and based on a utilitarian approach. In this chapter, I argue for an approach to research ethics that is situated and reflexive, and improves something for the participants and context studied. Based on an interview study on revision in translation teams, the chapter addresses the topics of confidentiality in field research and involvement in interview studies.
Keywords: ethics, research ethics committee (REC), confidentiality, interviews, revision
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Research ethics committees and qualitative research: A treacherous path
  • 3.Beyond the prospective and standardised approach: A plea for situated and reflexive research ethics
  • 4.Studying revision policies and translator-reviser relationships with an interview study
  • 5.The concept of situated and reflexive ethics applied to confidentiality
  • 6.Involvement of researcher and participants as a means of producing ethical interview research
  • 7.Conclusion: Risks of ethical regulation vs. promotion of ethical reflexion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
References (44)
References
Beaud, Stéphane, and Florence Weber. 2010. Guide de l’enquête de terrain : produire et analyser des données ethnographiques. 4th edition. Paris: La Découverte.Google Scholar
Béliard, Aude, and Jean-Sébastien Eideliman. 2008. “Au-delà de la déontologie. Anonymat et confidentialité dans le travail ethnographique.” In Les politiques de l’enquête. Épreuves ethnographiques, ed. by Didier Fassin, and Alban Bensa, 123–141. Paris: La Découverte. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bréchon, Pierre (ed). 2011. Enquêtes qualitatives, enquêtes quantitatives. Grenoble: Presses universitaires de Grenoble.Google Scholar
Burton-Jeangros, Claudine (ed). 2017. L’éthique (en) pratique : la recherche en sciences sociales. Genève: Université de Genève.Google Scholar
Creswell, John W. 2013. Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design: Choosing among Five Approaches. 3rd edition. Los Angeles & London: Sage.Google Scholar
Dawson, Angus J. 2006. “A Messy Business: Qualitative Research and Ethical Review.” Clinical Ethics 1 (2): 114–116. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Drugan, Joanna. 2013. Quality in Professional Translation: Assessment and Improvement. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Duflou, Veerle. 2016. Be(com)ing a Conference Interpreter: An Ethnography of EU Interpreters as a Professional Community. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dumez, Hervé. 2015. “What Is a Case, and What Is a Case Study?” BMS: Bulletin of Sociological Methodology 127: 43–57. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fassin, Didier. 2008. “L’éthique, au-delà de la règle. Réflexions autour d’une enquête ethnographique sur les pratiques de soins en Afrique du Sud.” Sociétés contemporaines 71: 117–135. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Flick, Uwe. 2018. Managing Quality in Qualitative Research. 2nd edition. Los Angeles & London: Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gagnon, Éric. 2010. “Le comité d’éthique de la recherche, et au-delà.” Éthique publique 12 (1): 299–308. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Genard, Jean-Louis, and Marta Roca i Escoda. 2019. Ethique de la recherche en sociologie. Louvain-La-Neuve: De Boeck Supérieur.Google Scholar
Gillam, Lynn, and Marilys Guillemin. 2018. “Reflexivity: Overcoming Mistrust between Research Ethics Committees and Researchers.” In The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research Ethics, ed. by Ron Iphofen, and Martin Tolich, 263–275. London: Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
González Núñez, Gabriel. 2016. “On Translation Policy.” Target 28 (1): 87–109. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gubrium, Jaber F., James A. Holstein, Amir Marvasti, and Karyn D. McKinney (eds). 2012. The SAGE Handbook of Interview Research: The Complexity of the Craft. 2nd edition. Los Angeles & London: Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haggerty, Kevin D. 2004. “Ethics Creep: Governing Social Science Research in the Name of Ethics.” Qualitative Sociology 27 (4): 391–414. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hekkanen, Raila. 2007. “The Role of Ethics in Translation and in Translation Studies Research.” Across Languages and Cultures 8 (2): 231–247. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hunter, David. 2018. “Research Ethics Committees — What Are They Good For?” In The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research Ethics, ed. by Ron Iphofen, and Martin Tolich, 289–300. London: Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kaufmann, Jean-Claude. 2016. L’entretien compréhensif. 4th edition. Paris: Armand Colin. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Koskinen, Kaisa. 2000. Beyond Ambivalence: Postmodernity and the Ethics of Translation. PhD Thesis, University of Tampere.
. 2008. Translating Institutions: An Ethnographic Study of EU Translation. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar
Koskinen, Kaisa, and Nike K. Pokorn (eds). 2021. The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Ethics. Abingdon & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Larouche, Jean-Marc. 2019. “Les sciences sociales et l’éthique en recherche en contexte canadien. Régulation imposée ou approche réflexive ?” Revue d’anthropologie des connaissances 13 (2): 479–501. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
LeBlanc, Matthieu. 2021. “Non-Professional Editing in the Workplace. Examples from the Canadian Context.” In Translation Revision and Post-editing: Industry Practices and Cognitive Processes, ed. by Maarit Koponen, Brian Mossop, Isabelle S. Robert, and Giovanna Scocchera, 73–88. Abingdon & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Leisey, Monica. 2008. “Qualitative Inquiry and the IRB: Protection at all Costs?” Qualitative Social Work 7 (4): 415–426. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lincoln, Yvonna S., and Egon G. Guba. 1985. Naturalistic Inquiry. Newbury Park & London: Sage.Google Scholar
Maxwell, Joseph A. 2013. Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach. 3rd edition. Los Angeles & London: Sage.Google Scholar
Mellinger, Christopher D., and Brian James Baer. 2021. “Research Ethics in Translation and Interpreting Studies.” In The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Ethics, ed. by Kaisa Koskinen, and Nike K. Pokorn, 365–380. Abingdon & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Olivier de Sardan, Jean-Pierre. 2008. La rigueur du qualitatif. Les contraintes empiriques de l’interprétation socio-anthropologique. Louvain-la-Neuve: Academia-Bruylant.Google Scholar
Olohan, Maeve. 2021. Translation and Practice Theory. Abingdon & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pym, Anthony. 1997. Pour une éthique du traducteur. Arras & Ottawa: Artois Presses Université/Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa.Google Scholar
Riondel, Aurélien. 2023. “Le grand écart de la révision. Étude par entretien des politiques de révision et des relations traducteurs-réviseurs.” Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Geneva. DOI logo
Risku, Hanna. 2016. Translationsmanagement: Interkulturelle Fachkommunikation im Informationszeitalter. 3rd edition. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.Google Scholar
Rubin, Herbert J., and Irene S. Rubin. 2012. Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of Hearing Data. 3rd edition. Los Angeles & London: Sage.Google Scholar
Saunders, Benjamin, Jenny Kitzinger, and Celia Kitzinger. 2015. “Anonymising Interview Data: Challenges and Compromise in Practice.” Qualitative Research 15 (5): 616–632. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schrag, Zachary M. 2010. Ethical Imperialism: Institutional Review Boards and the Social Sciences, 1965–2009. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Silverman, David. 2017. “How Was It for You? The Interview Society and the Irresistible Rise of the (Poorly Analyzed) Interview.” Qualitative Research 17 (2): 144–158. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Spolsky, Bernard. 2004. Language Policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Susam-Sarajeva, Şebnem. 2009. “The Case Study Research Method in Translation Studies.” The Interpreter and Translator Trainer 3 (1): 37–56. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Alison, Robyn Taylor-Neu, and Shauna Butterwick. 2020. “‘Trying to square the circle’: Research ethics and Canadian higher education.” European Educational Research Journal 19 (1): 56–71. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tolich, Martin. 2004. “Internal Confidentiality: When Confidentiality Assurances Fail Relational Informants.” Qualitative Sociology 27 (1): 101–106. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van den Hoonaard, Will C. 2011. The Seduction of Ethics: Transforming the Social Sciences. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Varpio, Lara, Rola Ajjawi, Lynn V. Monrouxe, Bridget C. O’Brien, and Charlotte E. Rees. 2017. “Shedding the Cobra Effect: Problematising Thematic Emergence, Triangulation, Saturation and Member Checking.” Medical Education 51 (1): 40–50. DOI logoGoogle Scholar