%0 Journal Article
%T Ethical Research Practice or Undue Influence? Symbolic Power in Community
%A Michelle Brear
%J Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics
%@ 1556-2654
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/1556264618761268
%X In community-based participatory research (CBPR), community-level consent is assumed to enhance ethical rigor, when obtained prior to individual informed consent. However, community leaders¡¯ permission to conduct research may influence individuals¡¯ agency to decline participation. This article presents findings of a Bourdieusian analysis of ethnographic data documenting CBPR in rural Swaziland. The findings reveal that the ¡°symbolic power¡± of leaders who provide community-level consent constrains individual agency and reproduces existing relations of power, if individual informed consent is simply a procedure. However, when informed consent is a process that introduces notions of autonomy and rights, it can disrupt power relations. Implications for ethical CBPR practice, and ethnography¡¯s value for developing theory from real-world research ethics practice, are discussed
%K voluntary informed consent
%K community consent
%K CBPR
%K symbolic power
%K ethnographic research
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1556264618761268