ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book reviews some of the ethical features of qualitative research. It focuses on the ethical issues associated with various roles experienced whilst conducting in-depth interviews with the participants, or during the negotiation of access to research sites. The book examines how participant expectations of the researcher, or outcomes of the research, can generate a number of unanticipated relational issues. It explores dimensions of sexual identity in fieldwork, and the ways in which desire and sex can be seen as aspects of the reality of the fieldwork experience. The book discusses what happens when private sexual experiences derived from talk about erections, condoms and wet dreams, are made public. It describes the ‘hybrid’ nature of the realities involved in constructing an ‘observer-as participant’ role while researching the occupational preparation and socialisation of a group of fulltime trainees for ordained ministry.
