ethics and/or Ethics in qualitative social research: negotiating a path around and between the two

This article explores the process of university Ethical Review both as lived experience and as part of institutional governance at an English university. The article uses Blackburn's distinction between ethics and Ethics (Ethics—A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001) as a framework to examine the themes of ‘vulnerability’, ‘power’ and ‘relationships’. These themes are analysed closely both within the institutional and the fieldwork contexts, attempting to include the perspectives of all those involved in the research ethics process. The article does not seek to draw any definitive conclusions but rather to stimulate, and add to the iterative discussion on the process of Ethical Review within institutions. Nonetheless, it does conclude by making some suggestions concerning the way in which the lived experience of ethics could better inform the practice of institutional Ethical Review

Contemplating workplace change

Drawing on topical life histories of physicians in a particularly volatile public health sector environment, we build theory around the contemplation of workplace change. Overall, our study provides evidence as to why single or multiple independent factors, such as pay or job structure, may fail to predict or explain individual decisions to stay in or change workplaces. Instead, the contemplation process we argue is a complex, evolutionary, and context-dependent one that requires individualized interventions. Our findings reveal the prevalence of episodic context-self fit assessments prompted by triggering stimuli, two mechanisms by which thought processes evolved (reinforcement and recalibration), and four characteristic story lines that explain why the thought processes manifested as they did (exploring opportunities, solving problems, reconciling incongruence, and escaping situations). Based on our findings, we encourage practitioners to regularly engage in story-listening and dialogic conversations to better understand, and potentially affect the evolving socially constructed realities of staff members

Later life sex and Rubin’s ‘Charmed Circle'

Gayle Rubin’s now classic concept of the ‘charmed circle’ has been much used by scholars of sexuality to discuss the ways in which some types of sex are privileged over others. In this paper, I apply the concept of the charmed circle to a new topic– later life – in order both to add to theory about later life sex and to add an older-age lens to thinking about sex hierarchies. Traditional discursive resources around older people’s sexual activities, which treat older people’s sex as inherently beyond the charmed circle, now coexist with new imperatives for older people to remain sexually active as part of a wider project of ‘successful’ or ‘active’ ageing. Drawing on the now-substantial academic literature about later life sex, I discuss some of the ways in which redrawing the charmed circle to include some older people’s sex may paradoxically entail the use of technologies beyond the charmed circle of ‘good, normal, natural, blessed’ sex. Sex in later life also generates some noteworthy inversions in which types of sex are privileged and which treated as less desirable, in relation to marriage and procreation. Ageing may, furthermore, make available new possibilities to redefine what constitutes ‘good’ sex and to refuse compulsory sexuality altogether, without encountering stigma

Traversing ethical imperatives: Learning from stories from the field

In this chapter we integrate the lessons that are shared across this handbook through the rich, storied examples of ethics in critical research. We outline central themes to the handbook that cut across all of the sections. The notions of vulnerability and harm are pertinent in critical research not only as a duty to protect participants, but also as signifiers that are mobilised and can constrain what is achieved in critical research. The stories told in this handbook contribute to ongoing learning about ethics in critical research by drawing on ethically important moments in the unfolding research processes. We ask whether ethical critical research requires relational models of reciprocity between researchers and participants/co-researchers and appreciation of situated ethics in the bureaucratic review processes

Fish oil in prolonged parenteral nutrition in children:omega-3-fatty acids have a beneficial effect on the liver

Neonates with intestinal failure are dependent on total parenteral nutrition (TPN) and therefore at risk for developing parenteral nutrition associated liver disease (PNALD). In this clinical lesson we report the treatment of PNALD in 3 infants with short bowel syndrome. Conventional omega-6 fat emulsion was substituted by omega-3 fish oil as the sole source of fat in TPN. The described patients were diagnosed as having multiple intestinal atresias, necrotizing enterocolitis and midgut volvulus, respectively, and all patients suffered from short bowel syndrome and were TPN-dependent. When persistent or progressive cholestasis occurred, omega-6 fat emulsion was replaced by omega-3 fish oil. In all 3 cases complete reversal of cholestasis was seen within months after the fish oil-fat emulsion switch. No negative side-effects were reported. These first experiences with the use of fish oil in children in the Netherlands confirm earlier suggested beneficial effects of omega-3 fatty acids in the treatment of PNALD in children with short bowel syndrome.</p