Silenced for Their Own Protection: How the IRB Marginalizes those it Feigns to Protect

Abstract

This paper provides a critique of the way IRBs can maintain the marginalization of ‘vulnerable’ populations through an insistence on anonymity that can run counter to a group’s desire to choose how to represent themselves. I explore the relationship between anonymity and risks and benefits in a discussion of my own experience negotiating with an IRB over a proposed participatory action research project that involved youth in the production of a documentary video.