Whose Safety, Whose Standards? Reclaiming Ethical Practice
Ethics is often defined by institutions. This session explores reclaiming ethics through care, justice & lived experience in research.
Participatory research is often described as ethical, inclusive and community-led. But who defines what “ethical” means? Who decides what counts as safe? And whose standards shape the boundaries of participation?
Too often, ethical frameworks are inherited from institutions rather than co-created with communities. Risk assessments can prioritise reputational protection over lived reality. Safeguarding can become surveillance. Compliance can replace care.
Whose Safety, Whose Standards? pulls back the curtain on how ethics operates in participatory and community-based work. This session will challenge whose comfort is prioritised, interrogate how safety is defined across positions of power and ask what it would mean to reclaim ethics as relational, accountable and rooted in justice.
🎤 Harsha Patel – Managing Director, Transformative Participation & Partnerships
🎤 Dr China Mills – Research Director, Healing Justice London
🎤 Binki Taylor – Brixton Project
Together, we’ll explore:
✨ How institutional ethics frameworks shape participatory research
✨ The tension between compliance and care
✨ The politics of safeguarding and accountability
✨ What community-defined ethical practice could look like
Expect challenge, debate and practical insight.
If you’ve ever asked, “Who is this process really protecting?” - this conversation is for you.
Our Nuff Sed events are CPD accredited, recognising the value of continued learning and professional development within participatory and community-led research. Attendees can earn 3 CPD points for each session they attend, making participation not only an opportunity for connection and reflection but also a contribution to their ongoing professional growth.
Ethics is often defined by institutions. This session explores reclaiming ethics through care, justice & lived experience in research.
Participatory research is often described as ethical, inclusive and community-led. But who defines what “ethical” means? Who decides what counts as safe? And whose standards shape the boundaries of participation?
Too often, ethical frameworks are inherited from institutions rather than co-created with communities. Risk assessments can prioritise reputational protection over lived reality. Safeguarding can become surveillance. Compliance can replace care.
Whose Safety, Whose Standards? pulls back the curtain on how ethics operates in participatory and community-based work. This session will challenge whose comfort is prioritised, interrogate how safety is defined across positions of power and ask what it would mean to reclaim ethics as relational, accountable and rooted in justice.
🎤 Harsha Patel – Managing Director, Transformative Participation & Partnerships
🎤 Dr China Mills – Research Director, Healing Justice London
🎤 Binki Taylor – Brixton Project
Together, we’ll explore:
✨ How institutional ethics frameworks shape participatory research
✨ The tension between compliance and care
✨ The politics of safeguarding and accountability
✨ What community-defined ethical practice could look like
Expect challenge, debate and practical insight.
If you’ve ever asked, “Who is this process really protecting?” - this conversation is for you.
Our Nuff Sed events are CPD accredited, recognising the value of continued learning and professional development within participatory and community-led research. Attendees can earn 3 CPD points for each session they attend, making participation not only an opportunity for connection and reflection but also a contribution to their ongoing professional growth.
Line-up
Harsha Patel
Dr China Mills
Binki Taylor
Good to know
Highlights
- 3 hours
- In-person
Location
The Old Laundry
Eastcote Street
London SW9 9BY
How would you like to get there?
Agenda
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Registration & Networking
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Welcome & Introduction
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Holding the middle: The real work of ethical participation
Harsha Patel – Founder, Doing Social | Managing Director, Transformative Participation & Partnerships Harsha designs participatory processes that people genuinely want to take part in. Since 2002, she has worked across capacity building, grantmaking, co-design, research and strategic partnerships in the social sector. She has led major co-design initiatives, including shaping a university degree in social change with 120 contributors and reviewing a health equity funder’s decision-making to strengthen inclusion and accountability. Harsha cares deeply about how participation feels. She believes ethical participation should leave people respected, valued and meaningfully connected to what they are helping to create. In this talk, she explores what it really takes to “hold the middle” when values, expectations and human limits are in tension.