Ethics and permissions

People are reading the blog! Which is lovely and a bit terrifying - grammar and punctuation and proof reading my own work are not a strong point.

I'm also starting to meet and chat to more people and wanted to be clear that nothing about anyone appears here without the full permission of the person involved. 

This might slow things down a bit as I want to give everyone time to reflect, chose not to have our conversation shared, ask for changes to what I've written etc. 

So if I'm due to chat to you please don't feel put off by this public face of the residency, you will be in editorial control.

Thinking about the ethics of any project I get involved in is part of how I chose what work I want to do, and keep checking in with what, and how, I'm doing things. At it's heart I'm asking myself a set of questions

  • is this useful?
  • is this kind?
  • what power do I have and how am I using it?
  • is this my story to tell?
  • how is this defending and supporting the human rights of others?
There aren't always easy answers, there often aren't answers at all. It's the asking of the questions that hopefully means I can work in an equitable way.

The Covid pandemic has added whole other levels of ethical questions that I'm constantly thinking about and reflecting on, tweaking my risk assessment and actions. 

Francois Mattarasso writes brilliantly about ethical questions in community and participatory practice on his blog. (the articles from Arlene Goldbard are particularly great) if you'd like to explore this more.


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