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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Ethical Challenges In Participant Observation: A Reflection On Ethnographic Fieldwork, Jun Li
Ethical Challenges In Participant Observation: A Reflection On Ethnographic Fieldwork, Jun Li
The Qualitative Report
In this essay I reflect on the ethical challenges of ethnographic fieldwork I personally experienced in a female gambling study. By assuming a covert research role, I was able to observe natural occurrences of female gambling activities but unable to make peace with disturbing feelings of my research concealment. By making my study overt, I was able to fulfill ethical obligations as a researcher but unable to get female gamblers to speak their minds. I responded to such ethical dilemmas by adjusting the level of involvement, participating in female gambling culture as an insider and observing it as an outsider. …