Performing Integrity : Managing Misalignment while Researching Transgressive Social Worlds

Müller, Thaddeus (2026) Performing Integrity : Managing Misalignment while Researching Transgressive Social Worlds. Symbolic Interaction. ISSN 0195-6086

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Abstract

The qualitative literature criticizing REBs suggests that researchers should develop an approach to research ethics that does justice to their daily practice of fieldwork. In this article, I contribute to this exploration by presenting three cases of negotiating research ethics while researching transgressive social worlds. These cases are related to political tension while researching cannabis shops, privacy issues while using visual methods to research an anarchist community, and contentions with a research participant while researching academic fraud. In the description of these cases, I highlight the essential role of performing integrity, which is an interactive and dynamic social process in which researchers present themselves as reliable and credible. In the cases that I present here, there were instances of misalignment, which triggered an internal conversation on the part of the researcher, who subsequently reflected on possible aligning actions. This article discusses how performing integrity and (re‐)aligning activities differ by audience and by research phase.