This article proposes affective ethics as an intervention in critical qualitative research, particularly in emotionally saturated, justice rooted, and institutionally implicated contexts. It argues that procedural and relational ethics are insufficient when engaging stories shaped by institutional betrayal and emotional labor. Building on Ahmed’s theory of affective economies, Pillow’s insistence on uncomfortable reflexivity, Boveda and Bhattacharya’s critique of extractive research ethics, and Patel’s framework of answerability, the article reframes ethical rigor as emotional and relational accountability. It calls on researchers to treat grief, silence, and contradiction as evidence of institutional weight and to remember participants through design.
Rae Chaloult (Thu,) studied this question.