We invite paper submissions for the panel “power, reflexivity, responsibility: Research ethics in practice” to be held at the IMISCOE Annual Conference 2026 in Girona, 29 June – 2 July 2026.
Since their institutionalization in the 1970s, Ethics Review Boards (ERBs)—originally designed for biomedical research—have gradually extended their reach into the social sciences. This expansion has raised profound questions for scholars engaged in participatory, ethnographic, critical, and constructivist methodologies. These approaches are often iterative, relational, and context-sensitive, making them ill-suited to the rigid proceduralism and biomedical assumptions embedded in many ERB protocols. What critics have described as "ethics creep" (Shore, 2007) reflects a growing tension between standardized risk management models and the ethical complexities of field-based, co-constructed research. As calls for epistemic justice, reflexivity, and Open Science reshape academic landscapes, new ethical challenges come to light—particularly for researchers working with marginalized and minoritized communities.
This panel invites critical, cross-disciplinary contributions that engage with the practical, political, and ideological dimensions of doing ethics in social science research. We welcome both empirical case studies and theoretical reflections that grapple with the tensions, compromises, and possibilities of ethical research practice.
We particularly invite contributions that address the following:
- Ethics Review in Practice: Experiences with ethics approval processes in critical, participatory, or constructivist research—successes, failures, workarounds.
- Epistemic and Methodological Challenges: How ethical review procedures align—or conflict—with the goals and values of context-sensitive, decolonial, or community-engaged research.
- Language and Power: The role of language in obtaining informed consent, framing research relationships, and determining what “counts” as data.
- Politics of Risk and Consent: Ethical complexities in working with vulnerable populations, including undocumented individuals, minoritized communities, or children.
- Reflexivity and Responsibility: How researchers account for their own positionalities, obligations, and the shifting dynamics of power during the review process.
We seek to open a space for nuanced dialogue around ethics as lived practice—not merely as bureaucratic procedure. Contributions from all disciplines are welcome, especially those drawing on situated fieldwork and interdisciplinary engagement.
Submission Guidelines
Please submit an abstract of 250 words (excluding references), including title, author affiliation(s), to
We will then submit the panel proposal for review by the IMISCOE conference committee.
Contact: Johanna Mitterhofer (