Ethics that becomes moralized: ethics in research, bureaucracy, and the Humanities and Social Sciences in Brazil
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5212/PraxEduc.v.21.26346.045Abstract
This article aims to analyze how the regulation of ethics in research practice is organized and implemented by Brazil’s National Research Ethics Commission (Comissão Nacional de Ética em Pesquisa – CONEP) and its Research Ethics Committees (RECs). The analysis draws on ethnographic material generated through participation in meetings of RECs in the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS), training sessions organized by CONEP, and participation in RECs within a scientific association. The ethnographic analysis indicates that “ethics in research” is conflated with “principlist bioethics.” In this context, references to ethics in research concern a specific ethical framework: the one regulated by the CEP/CONEP System. The article therefore asks the following question: When submitting a project, does the researcher learn to be ethical, or merely how to submit a project for committee review?
Keywords: Ethics in research. Principialist bioethics. Humanities and Social Sciences.
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