Methodological innovation and research ethics: forces in tension or forces in harmony?

This paper is an exploration of the tensions inherent in the interaction between ethics and methodological innovation. The authors focus on three cases of innovation in qualitative research methods in the social sciences: netnography, child-led research, and creative research methods. Using thematic analysis of data collected through semi-structured interviews with the innovators and commentators on the innovations, they discuss the cases in terms of ethical responsibly, the democratisation of research, matters of empowerment, and the relationship between research and the academy. The paper highlights the ways in which innovation does not necessarily equate to taking risks but rather to risk management: the innovators are cautious as much as creative, operating within the context of a culture in which procedural ethical regulation acts to limit methodological development, and in which they (and other users of their method/approach) communicate the safe qualities alongside the innovative qualities of their approac