In-depth interviews

Question 1

Field research

Answer 1

Qualitative methods used by researchers to make things visible that cannot be easily counted

Question 2

Primary sources of data

Answer 2

1. Participant data collection such as in-depth interviews, focus groups, participant observation etc.
2. Archival data collection such as historical accounts, census data and actor specific publications etc.

Question 3

Goal when using in-depth interviews for research

Answer 3

1. Preparatory: Better understanding of the research topic
2. Systematising: Tool to gather descriptive evidence, for concept formation/support for or against assumptions
3. Explorator/theory-generating: Interview as inductive tool to generate theory
4. Confirmatory/theory-testing: Interview as deductive tool to test theories

Question 4

At what stage of the research project are interviews relevant?

Answer 4

1. Preliminary to main study; to identify fruitful areas of research or to refine concepts and measures
2. Main source of data for a study; to test descriptive and causal hypotheses
3. Component of multi-method research; to triangulate with other methods, to increase internal/external validity, to “decorate”

Question 5

Philosophical perspectives on doing interviews

Answer 5

1. Positivist; miner perspective. Mine for pre-existing knowledge
2. Interpretivist; traveler perspective. Knowledge generation and interpretation. More of a conversation.

Question 6

Who to interview

Answer 6

1. Theoretical population; who do you want to generalise to?
2. Then study population; who do you theoretically have access to?
3. Sample; who will be your study?
   Sampling frame is how you get access to your sample

Question 7

Sampling strategies

Answer 7

1. Random sampling; golden standard, only works with large N
2. Non-random sampling; in the form of a purposive sample, you do criterion-based interviewee selection –> picking relevant people.
   Non-random sampling is also a convenience sample, because it is also based on availability.
   Other factors to consider in the sampling strategy are the choosing and ranking of selection criteria, the sample size, and if you’re actually able to interview these people; do you have access

Question 8

How to interview

Answer 8

1. Confirmatory, deductive and positivist vs exploratory, inductive and interpretivist. Leads to either unstructured, semi-structured or structured interviews
2. Mapping questions to get an overview of the topic
3. Continue with probes (responsive follow-up questions) and prompts (questions that steer the conversation into issues the interviewee is not talking about) and more detailed questions

Question 9

Three common methods of data generating

Answer 9

1. Ethnography; means to understand the culture, values and actions of a group through focusing upon the experience of members of the group in their natural context.
2. Individual interviews/focus groups; semi-structured individual interviews, often with elite individuals, often followed up by focus group interviews to informally discuss a certain matter
3. Photo-elicitation; method used in combination with interviews and focus groups with the aim of making the discussions more open and less controlled by the interviewer. Images, such as photos, videos or paintings, can be provided by the interviewer, or by the respondents themselves.