Reflecting on the Reflectivist Approach to Qualitative Interviewing

Year 2019, Volume: 8 Issue: 2, 339 - 357, 01.07.2019

Alper Kaliber

https://doi.org/10.20991/allazimuth.477335

Cited By: 3

Abstract

This study aims to reflect
on qualitative interviewing with a particular emphasis on semi-structured
interviewing (SSI), with the purpose of guiding students and young scholars of
International Relations and Political Science who will use this method in their
research. This study begs to differ from both radical post-positivist’s deep
scepticism which makes any scientific inquiry almost impossible as well as from
positivism’s unreflective, unproblematized, instrumental approach to
interviewing. It proposes a reflectivist approach to qualitative interviewing
that emphasizes the political nature of the interviewing process with various
political, ethical and even social consequences. The reflectivist approach
requires researchers to be self-critical at all times, in particular concerning
their role and influence on the interview setting and the interviewee. This article proceeds as follows: It first
addresses my own research on the nexus between civil society and the Kurdish
question in Turkey, where SSI has been operationalized as the main research
method. It then addresses the positivist and post-positivist debates on
qualitative interviewing as well as the reflectivist approach that this study
promotes. The article then engages in SSI in three distinct stages:
pre-interview, interview and post-interview phases. Finally, the concluding
part introduces some works utilising interviewing in Turkish IR and wraps up
the theoretical/methodological arguments disseminated throughout the study at
hand.

Keywords

Semi-structured interviewing, qualitative interviewing, reflexive approach to qualitative interviewing, qualitative research

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