Richard G. Mitchell

Secrecy and fieldwork

Introduction Defining Secrecy Secrecy and the Researcher The Debate Over Secrecy Secrecy, Risk, and Responsibility The Myth of Cosmetic Identity Conclusion

An unprincipled ethics?: The missing morality of the ASA code

It is argued that the present incarnation of the American Sociological Association’s “Code of Professional Ethics” supplants moral precepts of sociological practice with particularistic procedures and restrictions. This drift from moral reflection to intraprofessional control mechanisms is compared with various ethical theories applicable to social sciences, and explained in terms of perceived structural conditions within and external to the discipline.