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Sies, Mary Corbin. "Methodology Session: The Politics and Ethics of Studying the Vernacular Environment of Others," Vernacular Architecture Newsletter, 57 (Fall 1993): 14-21.

This is a summary of a vernacular architecture conference session devoted to exploring the political and ethical implications of research being done on vernacular environments. Specifically, the aim of this panel was to stimulate discussion about the impact scholarly work has on the persons whose neighborhoods and structures are being studied. At the outset Sies lists the set of focus questions developed and addressed by panelists Chris Wilson, Sylvia Rodriguez, and Rina Swentzell. She then summarizes their remarks. What these remarks illustrate are the often unintended and detrimental consequences of scholarly investigations, as well as the inherently political nature of such research and preservation activities. For example, Swentzell describes the descent of scholars and preservationists on New Mexico's pueblo communities as "cultural invasion," with outsiders now dictating when and how the pueblo is to be maintained. Like Swentzell, Rodriguez highlights the power implications involved in the study, preservation, interpretation, and development of built environments, stressing that the first obligation of scholars should be accountability to the persons whose built environment is being studied, something that may be accomplished through dialogical modes of research. Wilson's working definition of ethical behavior, along with strategies for ethical conduct based on accountability and reciprocity, follow. The piece concludes with a summary of the discussion that closed the session. Overall, this piece--along with its attached bibliography--serves as a useful survey of political and ethical issues confronting university-educated researchers involved in ethnographic research and historic preservation. [B. Johansen]