KŁAMSTWO, UCZCIWOŚĆ, ZAUFANIE. PROBLEMY ETYCZNE W BADANIACH NA TEMAT ŻYCIA OSÓB NIEWIDOMYCH
LIE, HONESTY, TRUST. ETHICAL DILEMMAS DURING RESEARCH ON THE LIFE OF THE BLIND

Summary/Abstract: This article is based on research on the life of the blind which has been conducted since 2011. The main group of ethnographic consultants consists of seventeen blind people at the age of 18-40, part of whom live, work or study in Wroclaw. The attention of the researcher is generally focused on problems related to entering adulthood, building one’s own independence and – most importantly – on the diversity of strategies and tactics, which help blind individuals organise their relations with material environment, groups of the blind, the sighted, public institutions, etc. In this article the author describes the basic ethical and moral dilemmas which appeared during the research and tries to find their reasons in the specificity of the studied group, chosen methodology, as well as in the nature of ethnography in a wider sense. The article touches several important, specific issues: ethnographic intimacy and trust; instability of the borderline between the professional and private identity of the researcher; tension arising due to bringing up questions difficult for the subjects; the complexity of lying and loyalty matters during the research process. Seeing a great chance for ethnography in practising an extensive collaboration with the people who participated in the research, the author has attached a commentary on the article made by one of his ethnographic consultants.

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