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The politics of names: rethinking the methodological and ethical significance of naming people, organizations, and places

University of California, Riverside, USA, katja.guenther{at}ucr.edu

This article examines how the decision to use real names or pseudonyms for people, organizations, and places involves consideration of the ethics of confidentiality, the power of naming, and strategies for fieldwork and presentation of findings. While these issues are infrequently discussed in published work, qualitative researchers need to attend to how we decide what names to use in presenting our findings. Rather than avoiding discussions of confidentiality, qualitative researchers should address the implications of their decisions regarding the use of pseudonyms or real names for the confidentiality of our respondents, for our relationships with respondents, for our commitments to transformative social science, and for our findings.

Key Words: confidentiality • naming • pseudonyms • research ethics • sociology

Qualitative Research, Vol. 9, No. 4, 411-421 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1468794109337872


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