Ethics on the playing field: Challenges and reflections on territorial stadium research

Abstract

This essay presents theoretical and critical reflections on the ethical challenges that could emerge in qualitative research focused on the study of football stadiums as territories. Using a qualitative-interpretative methodological approach, with an ethnographic and territorial orientation, specific tensions linked to the topic, approach, methodologies, and subjects are identified. Potential risks in each topic are discussed, and as a result, a priori situated ethical safeguards are proposed, understood not as a series of fixed norms, but as part of a relational, situated, and contingency-open ethics. The conclusion is that research in contexts such as football requires an active ethical practice, capable of recognizing the coexistence of ethics in the territory and of placing the researcher in a critical, reflective, and committed position.