Ethical and Deontological Think Tank (EDTT)

The Commission CRED (Ethical and Deontological Think Tank, in English) brings together both junior and senior researchers to explore the ethical implications of anthropological research and the various aspects of knowledge production (fieldwork, analysis, publication, dissemination, etc.) it involves. Its aim is to eschew normative policing of "research ethics" and rather to offer a platform for in-depth debate and exchange on questions of everyday ethics in the research process, questions that are often embedded in complex and ambiguous situations. The CRED promotes “processual ethics” (in contrast to “procedural ethics”) as the most appropriate approach to untangling this complexity (or messiness) (see our position papers: Perrin et al, 2018; 2020).

The CRED focuses on the ethical stakes underlying knowledge production, acknowledging that knowledge is produced by anthropologists whose identities, bodies and individualities are rooted in societies shaped by multiple power relations. These concern not only the different aspects of fieldwork, with populations that are othered, sometimes marginalised or in a situation of subordination, but also the conditions of work in academia. The CRED is thus concerned with issues of academic precariousness and the dependence of doctoral students in the thesis process; with anthropology’s relations with funding and ethical certification bodies in Switzerland; with questions raised by our research fields; with relations with partner populations in our projects; and with issues for professors who lead projects, and institutions, regarding how to foster and protect their research teams.

The CRED collaborates closely with other key actors in the field of research ethics in research.

The Ethical and Deontological Think Tank (EDTT; GRED in French) became a commission of the Swiss Anthropological Association (SAA) in November 2022 with the merger of two SAA working groups: the “Ethical and Deontological Think Tank” and “Risks in the Field”.

The “Ethical and Deontological Think Tank” was created as a working group at the General Assembly of the SAA in 2008, in the context of the revision of the federal law on research involving human beings. Acknowledging that ethical issues are closely intertwined with the research process and concerned about the relevance of an ethical charter for the SAA, the GRED produced a position paper that was accepted at the SAA General Assembly in 2010. Wishing to extend the debate, the GRED launched a call for contributions to publish case discussions on the SAA website. Based on concrete research examples, the aim of these case discussions was to narrate ethical issues as they presented themselves to researchers at different times of their research, while at the same time developing a reflection on what led them to opt for a particular solution. By publishing these case discussions, the GRED's intention was not to set itself up as a “controller” or “referee” for ethics in anthropology. Rather, it was to document, for pedagogical and reflexive purposes, the place of ethics at different points in the research process and to show how ethics can be concretely integrated into the reality of fieldwork, analysis and writing.

The “Risks in the Field” working group was initiated by doctoral students concerned by the lack of space for discussion, exchange and training on forms of risk and violence experienced during ethnographic work. The issue of the vulnerability of young researchers was the driving force behind the creation of this group, which organised doctoral school sessions on the taboo of sexual harassment and the failings of academic institutions in terms of protecting the people they employ.

Swiss Anthropological Association. 2021. Open Science and Data Management in Anthropological Research. Position Paper of the Swiss Anthropological Association (SAA).

Perrin, Julie, Nolwenn Bühler, Marc-Antoine Berthod, Jérémie Forney, Sabine Kradolfer, and Laurence Ossipow. 2018. “Searching for Ethics: Legal Requirements and Empirical Issues for TSANTSA – Journal of the Swiss Anthropological Association 23 (May): 138-53. https://journal-sa.ch/article/view/7316.

Swiss Anthropological Association. 2011. An ethical charter for ethnologists? Ethical position of the Swiss Ethnological Society.