This study critically examines how ethical dilemmas are narratively constructed in published reflections on humanities research conducted in rural contexts. Drawing on a corpus of 215 scholarly sources, including journal articles, ethnographic memoirs, and methodological essays, the study employs an integrated framework combining thematic synthesis and critical discourse analysis. The findings identify four recurring narrative domains: trust and community entry, insider/outsider dynamics, power and reciprocity, and the silences surrounding exit and long-term responsibility. While researchers consistently foreground relational ethics and acknowledge power asymmetries, the analysis reveals three structural limitations in the genre of reflexive writing: a tendency toward researcher-centered moral positioning, strategic silences regarding post-fieldwork obligations, and the deployment of ethical theory as explanatory rather than generative. The article contributes both to rural research ethics and to methodological debates on the role of narrative reflection in shaping disciplinary norms.
Lefisa et al. (Mon,) studied this question.