Emmerich on Schrag, Stark, and van den Hoonaard

Nathan Emmerich of Queen's University, UK, reviews Ethical Imperialism, Behind Closed Doors, and The Seduction of Ethics for Research Ethics.

[Emmerich, Nathan. “Between the Accountable and the Auditable: Ethics and Ethical Governance in the Social Sciences.” Research Ethics 9, no. 4 (December 2013): 175–186. doi:10.1177/1747016113510654.]

Emmerich is particularly frustrated by the lack of accountability of research ethics committees:

"The review process renders research accountable whilst, at the same time, erasing any trace of its own accountability (Stark: 73) or, we might say, its own status as an ethical endeavour . . .

"How systems of governance should themselves be held responsible − to researchers, to research participants, and to society as a whole − remains uninterrogated by applied ethical thinking."