Interactive Interview: A Research Note

Forming focus groups as a particular technique for gathering information gives excellent results in tracing group discursive dynamics. Compared to individual interviews, however, it has an inherent setback. Expressing opinions without sufficient confidentiality protection makes informants hesitant....

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Simeon Mitropolitski
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: FQS 2014-11-01
Series:Forum: Qualitative Social Research
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1963
Description
Summary:Forming focus groups as a particular technique for gathering information gives excellent results in tracing group discursive dynamics. Compared to individual interviews, however, it has an inherent setback. Expressing opinions without sufficient confidentiality protection makes informants hesitant. Trying to trace group dynamics at any cost may lead to losing important information regarding the research question. This research note proposes a new technique, interactive interviews, that combines the strengths of individual and group formats. In this technique, the researcher reproduces alternative discourses trying to engage informants in discursive dynamics identical to that found in focus groups. The results cover not only the eventual discursive change in informants, but also the discursive tensions that the researcher experiences. This note presents evidence of the testing of this technique on a case dealing with the role of EU integration on post-communist democratization in Bulgaria. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs150189
ISSN:1438-5627