ABSTRACT
Within the social sciences there are conventional and accepted methodologies,
theoretical perspectives and values. For this reason, researchers can face what might be
called professional danger when they break with established theoretical and
methodological conventions. We define professional danger as serious risk associated
with the consequences of challenging or deviating from existing occupational
dynamics and collegial preoccupations. Different academic or theoretical discourses
may be in fashion or powerful at one time but may go out of vogue in another. For
instance, Scott (1984), in her well-known article on power relations and research,
argues that leftist and feminist researchers have in the past been ‘red-listed’ for their
political perspectives. Although the types of theory or method favoured by the majority
of researchers may change there will always be ‘unfashionable’ topics and emerging or
unpopular methodologies which find themselves on the margins of academic
acceptability. This type of danger has significant consequences for the academics
involved, who may experience serious problems in publishing their research and in
securing respect and support from their colleagues. Furthermore, in an increasingly
competitive academic climate professional dangers are often centred around the
difficulties of obtaining and securing employment within the academy or other
research settings. Also, the professional dangers an individual might face are magnified
when they are at the start of their academic or research career and are therefore less
established. In this way professional danger can be seen as an insidious threat to social
science and the development of social research, as it threatens to quell innovation,
emergent ideas and the diversity of academic thought.
