Whose Ethics? Whose Interests?: The Tri-Council Policy and Feminist Research

This paper explores the implications of Canada's Tri-Council Policy Statement Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Human Subjects for feminist research and practice. Through the explication of my research experience with feminist ethnography, autobiographical inquiry, and participatory action research I trouble the ethical assumptions underlying both my work and the Policy Statement. I show how feminist research is ambiguous, contextual, and political, requiring meaningful dialogue about ethics at the local level, not the imposition of rules grounded in positivist research paradigms, and neo-liberal discourses and practices.