Reciprocity Reconsidered: Toward a Research Ethic of Economic Participation

Abstract

It is a common theme for fieldworkers to emphasize the close and equitable relationships they had with their key interlocutors, a relationship often represented in terms of friendship. But as well-intended as this framing may be, these relationships ultimately remain research relationships: they are characterized by multiplex power asymmetries and an inherent instrumentality, at least on the researcher's part. As an ethical guideline for overcoming these inequalities, ethnographers commonly invoke the principle of reciprocity. Like the notion of friendship, however, reciprocity offers a rather idealistic framing for research relationships. This idealism stands in the way of acknowledging the economic dimension of fieldwork. This chapter argues that the only productive way of dealing with the over-whelming feelings of guilt and disappointment associated with economic expectations and inequality in the field is through systematic reflection of the economic relations which shape our research encounters. The authors hope to advance this reflection by a critical reevaluation of the—ethical and economic-anthropological—reciprocity paradigm and by developing an alternative ethical-methodological framework of 'economic participation'. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)