Ethics And Experiences Of Honoraria With Marginalized Groups

Abstract

Marginalized communities have emphasized the provision of honoraria as a key ethical practice (When Researchers Come Calling, 2009), yet some researchers and ethics committees continue to express ambivalence about what compensation may indicate in knowledge production. This presentation will first consider some of the strategies used to ensure the provision of honoraria to research participants, grounded in analyses developed through participatory action research projects with marginalized groups, such as sex workers and illicit substance users. This will be followed by an ethnographic reflection on the experience of providing and receiving honoraria in the field with marginalized groups. Specifically, the experiences of handling money with participants will be contrasted between two recent research projects: (1) with predominantly Asian sex workers in Canada and Australia, and (2) with Filipino and Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong. These two projects revealed different norms, practices, and meanings attached to honoraria. The implications of these differences on data collection, data analysis and interpersonal dynamics between the researcher and participants will be discussed, including concerns about the links between honoraria and narrative for stigmatized, criminalized or marginalized groups.