ABSTRACT
The complexities of residential life pose a challenge to the analytic tools of the researcher. If the researcher is involved in studying any qualitative aspects of residential life, then the issues of reflective and ethically sound research approaches make the challenge even more acute. According to David Berridge and Isabelle Brodie ( 1 998, p. 25), in-depth studies of children's homes must be among the most sensitive and potentially threatening areas of social inquiry. Therefore, the research should be fair to the people involved, especially the most vulnerable ones, most often the residents, so as not to harm them any more than life has harmed them already so far. Being humanistic - or critical humanistic (Plummer, 200 1 ) - is not, however, very straightforward.
