The 'active interview' considers interviewers and interviewees as equal partners in constructing meaning around an interview. In this guide, the authors outline the differences between active interviews and traditional interviews and give novice researchers clear guidelines on conducting a successful interview.

"The book provides an academic basis for discussion and development of active interviewing methods. . . . The ideas raised. . . will be interesting and valuable to those involved in developing new methodologies in qualitative research and interviewing." --Helen Masey in Social Research Association News The interpretive turn in social science has taken the interview and turned it upside down. Once thought to be the pipeline through which information was transmitted from a passive subject to an omniscient researcher, the new "active interview" considers the interviewer and interviewee as equal partners in constructing meaning around an interview event. This changes everything - from the way of conceiving a sample to the ways in which the interview may be conducted and the results analyzed. In this brief volume, James A. Holstein and Jaber F. Gubrium outline the differences between the active interview and the traditional interview and give novice researchers clear guidance on conducting an interview that is the rich product of both parties. Students and professionals who use qualitative methods in the fields of sociology, anthropology, communication, psychology, education, social work, gerontology, and management will find The Active Interview to be a helpful and cogent guidebook.

Aimed at professionals in market research and journalism as well as researchers, academics and students, this handbook is both an encyclopedia providing discussions of methodological issues and a story of a particular tale of interviewing.

The First Edition of InterViews has provided students and professionals in a wide variety of disciplines with the “whys” and “hows” of research interviewing, preparing students for learning interviewing by doing interviews and by studying examples of best practice. The thoroughly revised Second Edition retains its original seven-stage structure, continuing to focus on the practical, epistemological, and ethical issues involved with interviewing. Authors Steinar Kvale and Svend Brinkmann also include coverage of newer developments in qualitative interviewing, discussion of interviewing as a craft, and a new chapter on linguistic modes of interview analysis. Practical and conceptual assignments, as well as new “tool boxes,” provide students with the means to dig deeper into the material presented and achieve a more meaningful level of understanding. New to This Edition · Includes new developments in qualitative interviewing: New materials cover narrative, discursive, and conversational analyses. · Presents interviewing as a social practice: Knowledge produced by interviewing is discussed as linguistic, conversational, narrative, relational, situated, and pragmatic. · Addresses a variety of interviews forms: In addition to harmonious, empathetic interviews, the authors also cover confrontational interviews. Intended Audience This text is ideal for both novice and experienced interview researchers as well as graduate students taking courses in qualitative and research methods in the social sciences and health sciences, particularly departments of Education, Nursing, Sociology, Psychology, and Communication. Praise for the previous edition: “I think this is one of the most in-depth treatments of the interview process that I have seen. The frank and realistic approach that the authors take to this topic is rather unique and will be very reassuring to researchers who are undertaking an interview study for the first time.” —Lisa M. Diamond, University of Utah

First-person narratives are a fundamental tool of the qualitative researcher. One of the latest volumes in the Qualitative Research Methods series, The Life Story Interview provides specific suggestions and guidelines for preparing and executing a life story interview. Author Robert Atkinson, Director of the Center for the Study of Lives at the University of Southern Maine, places the life story interview into a wider research context before moving on to planning and conducting the interview. Atkinson carefully covers the classic functions of stories, the research uses of life stories, generating data from a life story, and the art and science of life story interviewing. He also thoroughly examines the potential benefits of sharing a life story, getting the information desired and questions to ask, and transcribing and interpreting the interview. To provide further support for the reader, the book concludes with a sample life story interview. As the use and study of narratives continues to grow in importance throughout the research enterprise, The Life Story Interview becomes an even-more valuable tool for qualitative researchers in all disciplines.

Interview roles are less clear than they once were, and in some cases, the roles are even exchanged to promote new opportunities for understanding the shape and evolution of selves and experience. Postmodern Interviewing offers readers an exploration of the postmodern interview, a conversation with diverse purposes in which the communicative format is constructed as much within the interview conversation as it stems from predesignated research interests. It provides cutting-edge discussions of emerging horizons, featuring reflexivity, poetics, and power, along with discussions of new ways of gathering experiential knowledge. Employing concepts from anthropology, family studies, history, and sociology, the contributors present the ambitious new directions in which the interview has gone, such as: How the interview process is refracted through the lens of language, knowledge, culture, and difference How the dividing line between fact and fiction is blurred to promote richer understanding How standardized representation has given way to representational invention By exploring these exciting developments, readers will be exposed to the engaging opportunities for understanding the shape and evolution of selves and social worlds that are made possible through changes in the interview process. This volume is comprised of chapters from the Handbook of Interview Research (Gubrium and Holstein, SAGE, 2001). The companion volume, Inside Interviewing (SAGE, 2003), is also comprised of chapters from the Handbook.

The second edition of this landmark volume emphasizes the dynamic, interactional, and reflexive dimensions of the research interview. Contributors highlight the myriad dimensions of complexity that are emerging as researchers increasingly frame the interview as a communicative opportunity as much as a data-gathering format. The book begins with an overview of the history and conceptual transformations of the interview, which is followed by chapters that discuss the main components of interview practice. Taken together, the contributions to the handbook encourage readers to simultaneously learn the frameworks and technologies of interviewing and reflect on the epistemological foundations of the interview craft. The handbook has been updated to address recent developments, especially in qualitative interviewing. Twenty-six chapters are completely new; the remaining twelve chapters have been substantially revised to give readers access to the state of the art of interview research. Three entirely new sections include "Logistics of Interviewing," "Self and Other in the Interview," and "Ethics of the Interview."

Describing how chronic illness affects one's self-image, friends, and family, this book shares the experiences of people with serious chronic illnesses, and shows how they find the strength to carry on.

What is interviewing and when is this method useful? What does it mean to select rather than sample interviewees? Once the researcher has found people to interview, how does she build a working relationship with her interviewees? What should the dynamics of talking and listening in interviews be? How do researchers begin to analyze the narrative data generated through interviews? Lee Ann Fujii explores the answers to these inquiries in Interviewing in Social Science Research, the latest entry in the Routledge Series on Interpretive Methods. This short, highly readable book explores an interpretive approach to interviewing for purposes of social science research. Using an interpretive methodology, the book examines interviewing as a relational enterprise. As a relational undertaking, interviewing is more akin to a two-way dialogue than a one-way interrogation. Fujii examines the methodological foundations for a relational approach to interviewing, while at the same time covering many of the practical nuts and bolts of relational interviewing. Examples come from the author’s experiences conducting interviews in Bosnia, Rwanda, and the United States, and from relevant literatures across a variety of social scientific disciplines. Appendices to the book contain specific tips and suggestions for relational interviewing in addition to interview excerpts that give readers a sense of how relational interviews unfold. This book will be of great value to graduate students and researchers from across the social sciences who are considering or planning to use interviews in their research, and can be easily used by academics for teaching courses or workshops in social science methods.