ABSTRACT
Each research approach I present will have distinctive, as well as overlapping ethical issues, which I discuss in the individual chapters. There are at least two good reasons for having a strong ethical framework for a research project. Firstly, it has a protective function both for the researcher and for the researched. To illustrate, in the summer of 2007, the Australian University Queensland University of Technology found itself at the center of a row concerning the ethical issues related to a PhD thesis entitled: Laughing at the Disabled: Creating comedy that Confronts, Offends and Entertains. Whatever the truth, rights and wrongs of the incident, the huge explosion it created (including the suspension of two academics) provides a salutary reminder that we need to think very carefully about the language, messages, tone, intentions, integrity, assumptions and effect on others that our research activity and presentation constructs.
