Interviewing academic elites: a discourse analysis of shifting power relations

Abstract

In interviews with privileged individuals such as academics, power relations become particularly salient and explicit. Investigating how shifts in power relations are manifested in the interview allows us to understand the workings of power in academia as well as in the research process. This article presents a close analysis of selected segments of interviews with academics in elite positions to illustrate this. Comparisons between collaborative and non-cooperative interaction in the interview show interactional features that characterise such dynamics. By providing a reflexive and detailed analysis of interview episodes that characterise both cooperation and a refusal to cooperate, the article illustrates the significance of understanding discursive and contextual factors that are relevant to the management of interviews.

A Critical Approach to Interviewing Academic Elites: Access, Trust, and Power

“…Power, understood as the capacity to exert influence on other people (Wrong 1995), is the result of a continually negotiated intersection of factors such as gender, professional status, ethnicity, age, and language (Belur 2014;Neumann 2011;Perera 2021), and the relative importance of each factor is context dependent. For instance, Belur (2014) and Perera (2021) reported the importance of professional rank and participation in professional networks for the power negotiation between the interviewer and the interviewee in their respective research with the police and academics. This situationally sensitive negotiation of power acknowledges the possibility of the researcher assuming a more directive role in the exchange, particularly on issues where they possess pertinent experience (Savvides et al 2014).…”

Vulnerable Research: Competencies for Trauma and Justice-Informed Ethnography

“…Qualitative research contains deeply embedded power dynamics (Belur 2014;Gailey 2011;Guevarra 2006;Hamilton 2020;Huckaby 2011;Koivunen 2010;Muhammad et al 2015;Perera 2021Perera [2020; Vähäsantanen and Saarinen 2013). When working with vulnerable populations, these dynamics become particularly acute.…”

Reflecting on the use of Google Docs for online interviews: Innovation in qualitative data collection

“…An interview, offline or online, is a social event that carries the risk of bias (e.g. due to race, gender and social class; Perera, 2021). Yet, as both the interviewer and the interviewee are behind a computer screen during online interviewing, this risk of bias is reduced, allowing for better confidentiality between the interviewer and interviewee.…”