Interactional Studies of Qualitative Research Interviews

Methodological accounts of research interviews find that how researchers use this tool in their work varies widely: there are many “ways” of interviewing. This edited collection unpacks the interactional dynamics of qualitative research interviews from studies conducted in education, second language acquisition, applied linguistics and disability studies from scholars in the UK, USA, Italy, Portugal and Korea. These studies explore the interactional details of how the identities of researchers and their participants matter for the generation of interview data, as well as the kinds of discursive resources and social actions that occur in tandem with the production of data for research projects. Given the widespread use of qualitative interviews for social research, this book provides a robust contribution to what Tim Rapley has called the “social studies of interviewing.” This book is relevant to audiences across disciplines who use the interview as a primary research method.

Zhi Huang, Macquarie University, on Linguist List 30.4437 (21 November 2019):
This book is nicely presented with each chapter contributing an important aspect of qualitative research interviews. It makes a substantial methodological contribution to how we might complicate taken-for-granted understanding of qualitative research interviews as straight-forward information gathering tools.