Taking Ethics Seriously: Navigating the Ethics Approval Process at a Canadian University
Abstract
Based on interviews with key stakeholders in the ethics approval process at the University of Western Ontario, this thesis explores what it means to take ethics seriously in the context of formal, regulatory ethics policy and procedures. This study identifies several key tensions at play throughout the course of the ethics approval process, many stemming from often incommensurable understandings of ethical responsibility, ethical behaviour and ethics in research more generally. By centering key stakeholders and their relationships to one another and to the system that maintains and supports the ethics approval process, we can track many of these tensions to sincere displays of seriousness on the part of all actors, displays sometimes performed in contradictory and frustrating ways. Understanding the performance of seriousness, and its meaning to those involved, as part of the process can help us develop a more productive dialogue between administrative staff, researchers and board members, with the suggestion that all actors invested in improving the culture of their local Research Ethics Board draw from participatory research design to facilitate a sustainable discussion.