Research Ethics

So what would you do? I’ve used this famous picture from the Vietnam War several times in teaching. There’s another famous one you can see by Eddie Adams, showing a South Vietnamese officer about to summarily execute a Vietcong. They’re both hugely iconic images which burn themselves into the memory of anyone who sees them.

The picture above was taken by photographer Nick Ut and shows children fleeing from their village, napalmed by the Americans in 1972. The soldiers behind the children are South Vietnamese troops. They’d requested air cover to strike the village, in the belief that Vietcong forces were hiding in it.

The naked girl in the centre of the picture is Phan Thi Kim Phuc. She received very bad napalm burns from the bombing. She later migrated (to Canada, I think) and has spent a good part of her life campaigning against war. The link will take you to the website of the foundation she set up.

Why did I show this picture in lessons and what has it got to do with sociological research ethics?

Simply for this reason; it highlights the problems sociological researchers can face, although obviously it’s a pretty extreme example. But it brings out the issues, starkly and dramatically, and every student can respond to such a dramatic and moving, not to say, emotive, picture.

Some would say Nick Ut shouldn’t have been standing by taking pictures; he should have helped. He would probably argue that showing the world what was happening in Vietnam was one of the best things he could do.

Sociologists for their part, can witness crime, bullying, violence, or find out uncomfortable truths about how institutions and organisations work. They try to take the lid off society, and show what’s really happening, but perhaps in a more low key way than Nick Ut did in 1972.

So here are some sociological questions for you:

Are or should sociologists be answerable to anyone?
What should sociologists do if they witness illegal activities or activities which will harm others?
Is it possible for sociological research to be value-free?