Don’t attend the rally and express no opinion about it
By staying out of the event and remaining silent, I don’t need to worry about my views in being in the public eye. I can continue with my research without the possibility of being tagged as an activist. However, is my inaction really as inactive as I think? Is inaction ethical in this case?
What about the values at risk here?
Respect for Persons Beneficence Justice My Decision |
Respect for persons:
Declining the invitation to the rally shows respect for the differing positions of all my informants. By not aligning myself with my primary research subjects, the village members, I am effectively distancing myself from them. Also, by not advocating for the most vulnerable group in this situation, I am not respecting their rights to autonomy and free choice in terms of how they use their land. I am not respecting my own value of reciprocity. This choice does not respect my own autonomy as a researcher, because I do share the opinion that the indigenous communities should have the rights to manage their own lands. My research can be used to support this claim to land and it lack self-determination for me to deny this.
I may, however, decrease my effectiveness as a researcher by distancing myself from the community and behaving in a way that is incongruous with the support that I am commonly known to provide. Without the benefits of community access, I am less effective as a subtle advocate. The lack of my presence at the rally does not cause harm, yet it may not provide benefits to the community either. It may provide benefits to the research project as a whole because we rely on government approval to conduct research in the country and overt activism may affect that approval. |
What do you think?