Interviews as a Means to Understand (and Silence) Contemporary Africa and Its Voices

Abstract

Interviewing is commonly utilized in all disciplines of the social sciences. Across Africa, interviews are undertaken in a variety of diverse contexts by researchers from within and without the continent. Although the challenges many face are context specific, they are certainly not Africa specific: from research design and preparation, to implementation in cross-cultural, extremely rural, or conflict-affected environments. In order to overcome these challenges, researchers must first recognize that interview data encompass much more than respondents’ answers to posed questions. Interview data, obtained in the process of organizing and conducting interviews, are the information collected before, during, and after the interview encounter; and analyses of the context in which they are pursued, including encountered difficulties. Together, these rich data further our understanding of contemporary Africa, as they do of other continents. It is rare, however, for published outputs to fully engage with the processes of preparing for, enacting, and interpreting the interview encounter. Such omissions limit our understanding of the research process and impede methodological transparency, thereby obscuring possible biases in data and the conclusions drawn from it.

Emotional Sensibility: Exploring the Methodological and Ethical Implications of Research Participants’ Emotions

“…Although political science celebrates methodological prowess, it hardly recognizes emotional aptitude as an asset worth developing. This is symptomatic of the presumption that science is emotion-free (Stys 2019). It also reflects the general lack of research ethics training in the discipline, which is conspicuous relative to some other social sciences such as psychology (Desposato 2016, 284-5).…”

“…This emotional harm has both ethical and methodological consequences. As Stys (2019, 10) writes, “More than anyone would care to admit, [local] researchers determine what one sees and how one sees it.” It is in part due to the effect of emotions on this facet of research collaborations that Horn et al (2022, 5) conclude, “Fairer research leads to better quality research.”…”