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Ethical considerations in Ethnographic Fieldwork on Female Gambling

Shubhangi Banerjee

The question of ethical pitfalls invariably arises while conducting ethnographic fieldwork, by adopting the overt or covert method of participant observation in naturalistic settings. This blog analyses the research study by Jun Li, who has completed her postdoctoral fellowship from the Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre to investigate female gambling culture. (Li, 2008, p.100) She has employed ethnographic fieldwork by focusing on the various aspects and experiences of gambling by women through participant observation, thereby outlining the ethical considerations involved and the importance of ethnography when dealing with sensitive issues and investigating groups who are often marginalised and stigmatised.

In her essay, Li notes that even though participation observation presents detailed portraits of contextualised social realities, it was controversial and stirred debates regarding deception and absence of informed consent. Despite this, researchers with an advocacy and emancipatory paradigm who aim to represent lives of the disadvantaged individuals, continue to challenge such ethical constraints. (Bulmer et al, 1980 as cited in Li, 2008, p.101) Gambling is characterised by a combination of fame, secrecy and stigma. Studies find that most women who engage in this often do so because of being burdened with personal difficulties and adverse life situations and its due to the attached stigma and toxic outcomes of gambling, that they prefer to keep their perspectives and experiences private, especially when it comes to researchers who are perceived to be in the position of public knowledge production. (Li, 2008, p.102)

Thus, it can be inferred that adopting a covert method in such cases usually helps the researcher to gain an insider’s insight and first-hand experience of the daily realities on such delicate issues. However, there are constraints attached to this form of data collection. Li discusses in her report how being a non-gambler and using the budgeted research money, she didn’t feel like she was fully involved and also couldn’t live through the same emotional ups and downs and complex realities of the path of addiction these women chose; and as a result how these would be so disparate from statistical results generated by quantitative studies. (Li, 2008, p.103) During field encounters in public spaces, Li was often warned against the addiction to gambling and the moment she mentioned about her involvement in it for research purposes; women who initially shared their experiences refused to provide any more personal information for the research interviews/ questionnaires. She also mentions how she felt emotionally disturbed as an undercover researcher and that it wasn’t justified to use the end to the means, even though the psychological risks were outweighed by the potential research benefits. (Li, 2008, p.106) However, adopting this systematic overt method was unsuccessful as is evident above.

Its particularly interesting how Li discusses the three key players- gender, culture and age-that conditioned the researcher-participant relationship. Being a female researcher, there was a certain comfort established and she had access to information. She notes that even though interacting with individuals from similar cultural backgrounds can seem beneficial, it didn’t quite favour her research. Although she encountered a significant Asian population in the casinos, they weren’t willing to share personal experiences/ viewpoints due to family objections and certain shared cultural norms. In terms of age, Li argues that a teacher-student relationship accidentally occurred. For instance, both the elderly Chinese lady and the middle-aged White woman felt compelled to save me from becoming a victim to this addiction by sharing their stories. (Li, 2008, pp.108-109)

In conclusion, one can infer that ethnography and participant observation cannot be delinked and they often pose certain challenges that cannot be overruled. Everyday social realities are fluid, unpredictable and fragile; and ethnography requires mindful awareness of ongoing relationships and frequent adjustments, because when a study supplies both evidence and ground to contest against social prejudice, the process of research itself becomes praxis and advocacy. (Li, 2008, pp.109-110) Also, it is the comprehensive outlook of ethnography that provides a valuable framework, that can put forth the various hidden programmatic costs and benefits among various participants that the researcher might miss out during the observational research study and evaluation. (Henry et al, 2007, p.315) There is a cognitive and emotional connect which often leads to the undertaking of certain moral decisions. Psychological preparedness and flexibility to situational adjustments play a crucial role in successful fieldwork.







References
Li, J. (2008). Ethical Challenges in Participant Observation: A Reflection on Ethnographic Fieldwork. The Qualitative Report,13(1), 100-115. Retrieved from https://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol13/iss1/8
Henry, D., Bales, R. & Graves, E. (2007). Ethnography in Evaluation: Uncovering Hidden Costs and Benefits in Child Mental Health. Human Organisation, Vol.66, No. 3, 315-326. Society for Applied Anthropology. Retrieved from 
https://www.jstor.org/stable/44127380

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