2. Research Methods and Ethical Considerations
2.2 Ethical Considerations
Using a lens of intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1991) was useful in making myself aware of my positionality as a researcher15. A listing of identities is not necessarily useful in itself; Yuval- Davis (2006) argued that social divisions are irreducible to other social divisions. However, experiencing the world as a member of a particular grouping does not negate how forms of privilege and/or oppression are “constructed and intermeshed in other social divisions (for example, gender, social class, disability status, sexuality, age, nationality, immigration status, geography, etc.)” (Yuval-Davis, 2006: 195). Attempting to essentialise ‘womanhood’ for example, as a specific form of oppression in an additive way leads to conflation of identity politics narratives with positionality descriptions (Yuval-Davis, 2006). Additionally, these narratives may reflect a dominant discourse around a particular identity (in this case, women), which renders more marginalized group members invisible, and implies one “correct” way to be part of that group (Ibid.). I am aware that the category of “woman” does hold the same meanings for me as it does in different contexts, and that not all groups of people subscribe to the Western notions of “women”; these notions may often be taken for granted (Oyěwùmí, 1997).
Nonetheless, remaining conscious of my positionality, and avoiding inserting personal narratives over people’s own narratives (Mngomezulu, 2016) are what I used to avoid “radical alterity” (Keesing, 1994) when presenting ethnographic facts on ‘people’s cultures’.16 People’s own voices need to come across in the ethnography. When incorporating interviews in
14 Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements microblog: https://www.cffacape.org/news Too Big To Ignore news hub: http://toobigtoignore.net/covid-19-and-small-scale-fisheries-2/
15 I am a white, able-bodied, culturally- and (mostly) materially-middle-class woman with a university degree from the “prestigious” University of Cape Town.
16 Fonto, L. 2016. Exploring How Anthropologists May Avoid Othering in Telling People’s Stories: An
Afrikaans into this research, I was conscious of how translations from another language into English may be distorted, thus misrepresenting what is being said (Povinelli, 2001). The ethnographer is always implicated in her work (Mngomezulu, 2016). I made the choice to be an overt presence as an ethnographer (Söderqvist, 1991) in the written ethnography as far as possible by carefully explaining particular choices in research techniques, which could in turn explain how research turned out.
People were fully informed of the purpose of the research, and how the research would be used. I tried to make myself known as a researcher as soon as possible – Bernard (2006) urges anthropologists not to be an “inconspicuous participant” when they are actually observers
“who [want] to participate as much as possible” (2006: 390). During my research, I kept in mind that practical ethics might have needed to come into play during the research process itself, where the “right thing to do” is decided based on the best available information at the time. I kept in-person interviewees anonymous, and used full names only if they were in pieces published in the public domain. The reason why I have kept the individual interviewees anonymous is because I originally told in-person participants that their words would be kept anonymous. The participants I interviewed in person seemed to be satisfied with this arrangement. I acknowledge that using real names could have been an option; using real names could help descendants of interviewees find their words at a later stage (Morrow et al., 2014).
At the time, keeping individual interviewees anonymous seemed like the best choice, especially given the power dynamics between myself and some of the participants (e.g. white privilege17, class privilege). Where people have the same job title, I used initials18 to differentiate between interviewees’ comments.
Several researchers encountered poaching and other “illegal” activities within fishing communities during their research (e.g. Brill & Raemaekers, 2013; De Greef, 2014). I did not encounter mentions of such activities this time around (unlike Honours research), although I was prepared in the case of it happening (e.g. knowing the DEFF and CrimeStop phone numbers).
While I was in the middle of trying to recruit more participants from the Hout Bay harbour, COVID-19 cases increased in South Africa. According to the World Health Organisation, Covid-19 symptoms can appear, on average, 5 to 6 days after exposure, and the
17 I understand white privilege to mean that while I may face individual hardships, my life has not been harder specifically because of my skin colour.
18 Since people were saying similar things to what I’ve heard and read other fishers say, their words do not seem so controversial that adding an initial would potentially cause harm.
appearance of symptoms can range from 1 to 14 days (World Health Organisation [WHO], 2021). Thus, a person could be infectious but asymptomatic. The WHO has also advised precautions such as physical distancing. Continuing to do in-person research thus became riskier, both for participants and myself. That is not to say that participants would have had Covid-19. I thought that it was best to manage the variables that I could control, and so I decided that it was best not to travel to places and thus risk potentially infecting participants.
Shortly after that, in February, lockdown measures were announced in South Africa as a way of curbing the spread of COVID-19. Thus, I decided to pivot to digital methods of research, which included following the efforts of the organisation ABALOBI to preserve the link between small-scale fishers and the market despite the pandemic. I also followed news articles related to small-scale fishers and the pandemic.
In light of doing digital research, I needed to consider new ethical dimensions of my work. For example, Morrow et al. (2014) refuted the idea that secondary analysis poses few ethical challenges. It is important interrogate one’s use of online data for responsibility towards the source and possible misinterpretation. What story were the participants in the original research trying to tell? In what ways can research on a different topic that uses the original research avoid distorting participants’ stories?
Lupton (2020) noted that social research has been done online for many years and makes a helpful point:
“You will also need to consider the ‘affective atmospheres’ of conducting any kind of social research in a pandemic, when normal routines are disrupted and many people are feeling uncertain and worried, or are ill or caring for ill family members. People may be living in environments where they are subjected to harassment, violence or surveillance by other family members. Privacy issues are very important to consider in these contexts (Lupton, 2020: 19)”.
Those who are confined during lockdown, and bored but healthy, may be enthusiastic about joining a research project. It is important to consider the target participant group when deciding how to move forward. Using online data collection methods involving material that people uploaded needs a careful consideration of ethical issues, since people did not generate it after giving full consent (Lupton, 2020).
I experienced using different forms of ethics depending on different methods of research, all while keeping within the ethical guidelines of Anthropology Southern Africa19. In the case of interviewing fish sellers in Hout Bay, there came to be an implicit understanding that buying fish constituted a “fair exchange” for taking part in an interview. For other interviewees, providing refreshments was considered fair. In my experience, it is an implicit rule that one cannot turn up “empty-handed” if one is hosting someone or taking up their time in some way. Thus, providing refreshments as a “good host” would, or supporting a local business, were the two main forms of acceptable exchanges for taking up someone’s time for an interview.
19 https://www.asnahome.org/about-the-asna/ethical-guidelines