ABSTRACT
Thirty years ago Howard Becker (1970) asked, ‘Whose side are we on?’ Out of this
seemingly straightforward question have arisen complex debates about how we as
researchers should see our roles in the field, how we should relate to participants and
how far we should try to protect them. These kind of issues are now routinely discussed
as part of social research methods courses and by scholars engaged in the research
process. In contrast, with a few notable exceptions (e.g. Lee 1995), the issue of
protecting researchers is often disregarded and has never been fashionable to think
about or to discuss. In this book we have tried to redress this imbalance by outlining
some of the concealed and/or ignored aspects of researcher risk. The contributors to
this book have reflected on how they coped with various risks, many noting that
sharing danger and threat with participants often facilitated deeper insight into their
lives. In doing this we have not sought to negate risk to participants. In fact we would
argue that researcher and participant dangers are often interconnected and difficult to
disentangle.
