Question d'éthique de la recherche en sciences sociales

Teacher(s)

Chaumont Jean-Michel ;

Language

Français

Main themes

Sociologists and historians held a decisive position in the process of construct-ing social reality, particularly in societies where the scientific expertise is authoritative: the first are deemed be able to describe and explain the contempo-rary social phenomena, the latter are expected the same with regard to the past. In both cases aspects considered problematic of the present and the past are fre-quently the objects of their research. Social scientists are obviously not respon-sible for these social problems but they have de facto an important collective responsibility while providing the description and explanation of social "patholo-gies". When they present "objectively" these "pathologies" to the politicians - who are often also their sponsors- in some categorization (for example as a "criminal" phenomenon rather than an "economic" one), the researchers influence the type of policies that are applicable. In this sense, their productions affect indirectly the experience of their contemporaries, particularly among the most vulnerable. Taking concrete examples as starting point, one will strive to discern the implications and the limits of this shared responsibility by mobilizing both social sciences practitioners' reflections and conceptual tools developed by con-temporary philosophy.

Aims

The first goal of the lecture is to raise the student's awareness to ethical issues related to the scientific production in social sciences. Often ignored because very diluted, the collective responsibility arising from the mission given to social scientist to say the truth about social reality has to be made conspicuous. The second goal is to provide them with the conceptual tools necessary to reflect and take, if they are willing so, a share of responsibility which shouldn't be nor neglected, nor overwhelming. A third goal will be to integrate the constraints re-sulting from the triple requirement to account to his peers, its sponsors and, last but not least, the subjects who have been his work "objects". One will try to explore the means at the researcher's disposal to protect his independence.

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.

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