Mark Francis Rouncefield

We report on our experiences in a participatory design project to develop ICTs in a hospital ward working with deliberate self-harm patients. This project involves the creation and constant re-creation of socio-technical ensembles that satisfy the various, changing and often contradictory and conflicting needs in this context. Such systems are shaped in locally meaningful ways but nevertheless reach beyond their immediate context to gain wider importance and to be integrated with the larger environment.

As ethical issues become increasingly important and problematic in research, this chapter reflects on our own investigations into some of the ethical considerations involved in long-term research ‘in the wild’. In particular, we consider two relevant issues: the effect of a long-term relationship with a community, and the delineation and relevance of ‘practical’ ethics in the process. What becomes clear from our interrogation of the data is that issues of responsibility, including those of how we identify what our responsibilities might be; who holds them; what they entail, and how we discharge them are matters of the negotiated order. In a context where research relationships ‘in the wild’ are predicated on lasting commitments, they are not, and cannot be, determined by the researchers alone. They evolve over time and in delicate relation to the needs and desires of our fellow research partners and participants—this is what ‘practical ethics’ entails.