Seeking a Research-Ethics Covenant in the Social Sciences

In Seeking a Research-Ethics Covenant in the Social Sciences, Will C. van den Hoonaard chronicles the negative influence that medical research-ethics frameworks have had on social science research-ethics policies. He argues that the root causes of the current ethics disorder in the social sciences are the aggressive audit culture in universities and the privilege accorded to medical research ethics, which overrides ethical issues in all other disciplines. Van den Hoonaard recovers the unique history of research ethics in sociology and anthropology and provides an overview of proposals to remedy the situation. Based on an analysis of current regimes, he provides a detailed plan for how to unshackle research ethics in the social sciences from medical frameworks. Central to this plan is an insistence that covenantal ethics be embedded in the professional training of researchers in the social sciences. Based on decades of research, advocacy, and engagement with research-ethics policy at all levels, with a chapter by Marco Marzano (University of Bergamo), the book will be of interest to researchers, policy makers, and administrators who seek to support the full potential of social science research.