Will C. van den Hoonaard. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 2011; 375 pp; ISBN: 978-1-44264-268-3, cloth $75 CAD; ISBN: 978-1-44261-150-4, paper $32.95 CAD.

The Seduction of Ethics is an ethnographic work about relationships between researchers and research ethics committees. In this book, van den Hoonaard looks at formal research ethics codes and how countless administrators, researchers, scholars, and policy makers are lured into their ambit. In Canada alone, ethics review is a $35 million ‘industry.’ What drives this seduction is not only a moral panic and a view of people as vulnerable and needing protection, but also the public’s desire for institutional accountability. The result is a systemic change in the way social researchers conduct their work.

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Text provided by publisher.