How did we ever get into this mess? : the rise of ethical regulation in the social sciences / Robert Dingwall -- Knowledge and its integrity within a knowledge economy : ethics and wise social research / John Harrison, David Rooney -- Public sociology, critical sociology, and the sociological enterprise / Richard A. Courtney -- Ethics and social conflict : a framework for social research / Marco Marzano -- The politics of telling : beyond similarity and difference in the interview relationship / Michael Keenan -- Trust, coercion and care : researching marginalised groups / Andrew Wilson, Philip Hodgson -- Improvisation, ethical heuristics and the dialogical reality of ethics in the field / Mark Edwards, Sam Hillyard -- Consent, confidentiality and the ethics of PAR in the context of prison research / James Ward, Di Bailey -- Listening to voices : an ethics of entanglement / Lisa Blackman -- The agency of ethical objects / Joost van Loon -- Toward a speculative ethics / Kevin Love.

Recent shifts in the economic, cultural and theoretical context within which Higher Education institutions organise and pursue research activities, alongside other factors has prompted a reconsideration of the role of social research - its purpose, its practice and its ethical alignments. Blending practice-based reflection with philosophically informed theoretical work, this volume brings together a field of leading and rising academics from sociology and social theory to consider - for the first time in a published collection - both contemporary ethical issues in social research, and the increasing impact of ethics on social research. Situated at the intersection of ethics and knowledge production, these essays elaborate key ethical themes, trace the concrete negotiations of 'live' ethical issues in empirical qualitative research, and intensify the ethical encounter with innovative perspectives drawn from recent developments in philosophy and social theory. This collection is both informative and provocative, supporting the ethical negotiations of empirical researchers and enhancing understanding of the complex imbrication of ethics and knowledge in contemporary social research.