Composite actors as participant protection: methodological opportunities for ethnographers
Journal of Organizational Ethnography
ISSN: 2046-6749
Article publication date: 18 October 2021
Issue publication date: 4 November 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to persuade ethnographers to consider using composites for studies in which protecting participants from identification is especially important. It situates the argument in the context of the transparency and data sharing movements' uneven influence across disciplines.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews problems in maintaining confidentiality of research participants using pseudonyms and masking. It analyzes existing literature on composites, conditions of composite use and identifies composite actors as a form useful to place-based ethnography. Methodological aspects of composite actor construction are discussed along with potential opportunities composites offer.
Findings
Construction of composite actors is best accomplished by aggregating thematically during deskwork. Composites provide enhanced confidentiality by creating plausible doubt in the reader's mind, in part, through the presentation of aggregate rather than individual-level data.
Originality/value
This discussion advances the methodology of constructing composites, particularly composite actors, providing guidance to increase trustworthiness of ethnographic narratives that employ composites.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
A draft of this paper was first presented at the Western Political Science Association 2019 Conference, San Diego, California. Thanks to the panel discussant, Samantha Majic, for her comments and encouragement to pursue this project. Thanks, also, to Matthew Burbank and Ella Myers for feedback on an earlier draft. Any errors remain ours.
Citation
Yim, J.M. and Schwartz-Shea, P. (2022), "Composite actors as participant protection: methodological opportunities for ethnographers", Journal of Organizational Ethnography, Vol. 11 No. 3, pp. 228-242. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOE-02-2021-0009
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited