I will present a paper that explores ethical issues and power relations in ‘studying up’. The Swedish law on research ethics approval has been subject to extensive critique for constraining explorative research that follows qualitative ethnographic methodology. In my paper I elaborate on this critique and add perspectives from studies where the informants are not solely vulnerable, powerless, or defenceless in relation to the researcher. Analysing material from an observational study on an elite school in the south of Sweden, the paper presents examples of powerlessness, defencelessness, and vulnerability for the research(er) as well as for the informants and demonstrates the ethical issues that evolve from research conditions where power balances are in motion. The conclusions drawn from the analysis call for the development of research ethical considerations that make space for ever changing power relations. During the presentation I wish to discuss my arguments for further clarity on researcher positions in ethnographies 'up' in perspective to research ethics.