Abstract
This chapter responds to the widespread resistance among social scientists against the perceived inappropriate research regulatory procedures applicable to research of a generally low risk nature. Considering the unique collection of risks and opportunities in Africa (such as illiteracy, genocide and corruption), and as risk and risk assessment is socially constructed and subjective in nature, we propose a caring, context informed and dialogical approach to risk assessment in social and human science research in Africa. This chapter suggests that the dialogical approach include various stakeholders, such as universities and researchers, individual and collective human research participants, as well as the diversity of national and transnational societies. Such an approach will care for the diverse interests of research stakeholders in Africa.
Organisations are of two kinds, those which aim at getting something done, and those which aim at preventing something from being done.
Bertrand Russel (1952: 51).
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Suggested Further Readings
Tufano, P. (2011). Managing risk in higher education. In Forum for the future of higher education (pp. 54–58). Cambridge, MA: Educause. Retrieved from https://www.educause.edu/forum/index.asp
Van Heerden, M., Visagie, R. G., & Wessels, J. S. (2016). A discipline-relevant conceptual framework for research ethics review in economic sciences. Review of Social Economy, 74(1), 33–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/00346764.2015.1125632.
Wassenaar, D., & Mamotte, N. (2012). Ethical issues and ethics reviews in social science research. In A. Ferrero, Y. Korkut, M. M. Leach, G. Lindsay, & M. J. Stevens (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of international psychological ethics. Oxford Handbooks Online, Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199739165.001.0001. Retrieved from www.oxfordhandbooks.com
Wessels, J. S., & Visagie, R. G. (2017). The eligibility of public administration research for ethics review: A case study of two international peer-reviewed journals. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 83(1_suppl), 156–176. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852315585949.
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Wessels, J.S., Visagie, R. (2019). Risk Assessment of Social Science Research in Africa. In: Nortjé, N., Visagie, R., Wessels, J. (eds) Social Science Research Ethics in Africa. Research Ethics Forum, vol 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15402-8_6
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