ABSTRACT

This chapter addresses a tension that might arise between the desire to be an ethical researcher and the need to comply with the requirements of a procedural ethics approval process. The nexus between risk management and ethics procedures is practically symbiotic. Ethics applications require a risk management assessment and the ethics procedures themselves are part of the risk management procedures of the university. The notion that all risk can be quantified and minimised prior to the commencement of research implies that the management of risk can be removed from the context in which it arises and managed in advance of the unfolding of time and inter-subjectivity between the researcher and research participants. The development of research ‘projects’ is arguably a result of the implementation of new public management and of an audit culture that demands that work be organised in such a way as to be conducive to oversight.