Is written documentation of informed consent required in ethnographic research?
Ethnographic research interviews are not necessarily formal interviews with a questionnaire. They often are simple conversations on the respondent’s home ground (as opposed to the researcher’s laboratory). Competent adult individuals have the option of participating and responding to questions or the respondent has the choice of not allowing the researcher access to his or her person, ignoring requests for information, giving misleading replies, or responding to requests in other ways that preserve the respondent’s dignity and independence. Informed consent is usually implied by the respondent’s willingness to talk to the researcher. In most ethnographic projects a request for a written, formal consent would seem suspicious, inappropriate, rude and perhaps even threatening. In other words, written consent can potentially harm the research interaction and generate rather than ameliorate concern in respondents. In many parts of the world, for many people with a history of exploitation an
