Disaster Research “Methics”: Ethical and Methodological Considerations of Researching Disaster-Affected Populations

How we do research directly affects what we know about the subject matter under study. While the study of disaster events continues to grow, rigorous inquiry on disaster research methodology is limited because it is confounded by the disruption a disaster presents. Yet it is precisely at that point...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe American behavioral scientist (Beverly Hills) Vol. 64; no. 8; pp. 1050 - 1065
Main Author Van Brown, Bethany L.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.07.2020
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Disaster studies
Disasters
Disruption
Domestic violence
Ethical dilemmas
Ethics
Fieldwork
Hurricanes
Methodological problems
Primacy
Research ethics
Research methodology
research methods
natural hazards
ethics
social sciences
disasters
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Summary:How we do research directly affects what we know about the subject matter under study. While the study of disaster events continues to grow, rigorous inquiry on disaster research methodology is limited because it is confounded by the disruption a disaster presents. Yet it is precisely at that point that special methodological problems emerge. The methodological—and inherently ethical—challenges disaster researchers face became apparent to me during my own fieldwork on domestic violence organizations and their recovery trajectory following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. In this article, I explore methodological and ethical issues that lay beneath “studying” people in the wake of disaster events and argue that ethical concerns should have the same, if not greater, primacy as methods; a dual consideration I refer to as “methics.” My findings support this argument and add to the growing chorus advocating for a paradigm shift in disaster research methods.
ISSN:0002-7642
1552-3381
DOI:10.1177/0002764220938115