Ethics and Consultancy

Abstract

This chapter provides the author's research experience through two specific themes, in order to reflect on what ethics means for planning research in contexts structured by postcolonial identity politics. The first theme concerns the positionality and power of the researcher in cross-cultural research settings, and in particular postcolonial settings where Indigenous people are the objects of a white social scientist's research interest. The second theme concerns the life of research findings beyond the project itself, and what this means for ethics in planning research. Learning is our privilege, knowledge of the world virtually a right. Research in settings and situations where postcolonial politics will structure the relationship between researchers and researched must be present to this dilemma and undertake to properly conceptualise what that means for the research. Solutions to the ethical problems, including positionality effects, confidentiality, and the use of the findings beyond the field were found in relatively established procedural rules for research ethics.