Data, integrity & fieldwork: Navigating ethical debates and processes in interpretive research

These are the slides from a seminar entitled, 'Data, integrity & fieldwork: Navigating ethical debates and processes in interpretive research,' which took place on 4 November 2025 at the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam. The seminar was co-led by Andrew S. Hoffman and Peter Pels from Leiden University; the slides cover the material Andrew presented during the seminar, while Peter's contributions detailing the history of Pels et al. 2018 (referenced below) did not have an accompanying slide deck. The following description of the event appeared on the original event announcement of the ISS website: Sponsored by the International Institute of Social Studies' Research Ethics Committee and the Political Ecology Research Group, this event will examine how researchers and data managers can navigate the sensitivities related to privacy and trust in research. The International Institute of Social Studies and Erasmus University Rotterdam, as with many other universities in the Netherlands and globally, have endorsed 'open science' principles and related efforts that encourage (or sometimes require) researchers to make their data 'Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable'Opens external. This raises sensitivities related to privacy, trust and epistemology - especially for socially-engaged ethnographic and interpretive researchers. The speakers will share their experiences navigating and advising on data management for ethnographic and fieldwork-based interpretive research projects. Following these presentations the seminar will then offer space to examine how researchers, data managers and REC reviewers can best chart these debates and expectations so as to productively support socially-engaged and ethical ethnographic and interpretive research. The suggested readings for the seminar were: Pels, P., Boog, I., Henrike Florusbosch, J., Kripe, Z., Minter, T., Postma, M., Sleeboom-Faulkner, M., Simpson, B., Dilger, H., Schönhuth, M., von Poser, A., Castillo, R. C. A., Lederman, R., & Richards-Rissetto, H. (2018). Data management in anthropology: The next phase in ethics governance? Social Anthropology, 26(3), 391–413. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-8676.12526Opens external Poirier, L., Fortun, K., Costelloe-Kuehn, B., & Fortun, M. (2020). Metadata, Digital Infrastructure, and the Data Ideologies of Cultural Anthropology. In J. W. Crowder, M. Fortun, R. Besara, & L. Poirier (Eds.), Anthropological Data in the Digital Age: New Possibilities – New Challenges (pp. 209–237). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24925-0_10Opens external [Link to PDF available via Google ScholarOpens external] Elfenbein, T. W., & Hoffman, A. S. (2024). Towards meaningful institutional change: Responsive bureaucracy and the governance of anthropological ethics. Anthropology Today, 40(2), 4–7. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8322.12871Opens external de Koning, M., Meyer, B., Moors, A., & Pels, P. (2019). Guidelines for anthropological research: Data management, ethics, and integrity. Ethnography, 20(2), 170–174. https://doi.org/10.1177/1466138119843312