This study examines the process and ethics of cross-national social-science research, especially as it involves scholars from Western industrialized countries and their collaborators and subjects from the Third World. It takes as its focus two key issues: the degree to which researchers from industrialized countries have an obligation to collaborate with scholars from the less-industrialized countries they study and the degree to which researchers are obliged to insure that their subjects benefit from research.

Although the authors believe that scientific research holds the promise of resolving social problems and bettering human life, they are critical of traditional approaches to research. In particular, they are concerned about the shortcomings of value-neutral inquiry. As an alternative, they propose collaboration: a style of interaction they have used successfully in their own research and which they advocate for cross-national research. They insist, however, that alternative approaches should be integrative and consistent through all levels of concern-ideological, theoretical, and practical. Their aim is to unify theory and practice in - and create a praxis of -- social-science research ethics.

An East-West Center Book from the Institute of Culture and Communication

UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII PRESS

Honolulu, Hawaii 96822

ISBN 0-8248-0928-9