LOGISTICS AND RESEARCHERS AS LEGITIMATE TOOLS FOR DOING INTERCULTURALRESEARCH - A REJOINDER TO GUNTHER

Gunther's (1998) story highlights the critical importance of practical issues such as logistics and the researcher's active role in 'doing' intercultural research. For example, the social psychological notion o f 'informed consent' has become institutionalized as a bedrock of Nort h American social science research. Yet in intercultural research rigi d adherence to North American norms for informed consent can violate b oth subjects' and researchers' culture-specific communication codes in societies where human relations function differently from US or Europ ean habitual patterns. 'Cookbook'-type application of the social ethic al norms that have become canonized in one society in a different (or even among different subgroups within the same) society can lead to fu ndamental problems in scientific knowledge construction.