On Home Turf: Interview Location and Its Social Meaning

Abstract

This paper argues that interview location plays a role in constructing reality, serving simultaneously as both cultural product and producer. Thus, the choice of interview location (who chooses and what place is chosen)is not just a technical matter of convenience and comfort. It should be examined within the social context of the study being conducted and analyzed as an integral part of the interpretation of the findings. In the present case study, involving Palestinian female citizens of Israel, the decision of where to hold the interview allowed the participants to negotiate directly or symbolically with societal norms and to express their re/positioning in Israeli society and in their own community and to demand that the interviewers, particularly the Jewish ones, traverse both geographic and social boundaries. The interview not only structured the individual subjectivity of interviewer and participant but also broadened and deepened the concept of knowledge and its sources, and incorporated the subjects' experiential truths as part of a gendered, ethnonational social reality.KEY WORDS: in-depth interview; location; interview society; Palestinian women; social boundaries.Of the various components of the interview process, relatively little attention has been paid to where the interview takes place and who selects the interview location. This paper aims to fill in this deficiency by dealing with the choice of interview location. The argument presented here is threefold: (a) the issue of who selects the location, and what setting is chosen, is not only a technical matter of convenience and comfort but should be examined within the social context of the study being conducted; (b) the location selected should be seen as part of the interpretation of the findings; and lastly, (c) the interview location plays a role in constructing reality, serving simultaneously as both cultural product and producer.

Olive Oil, Chocolates and a Bright Blue Sweater: Power Relations and the Implications of Gifts in the Field

“…Over the past few years, an increasing number of studies, some of them reflexive, have addressed interview situations, locations, origins of researchers and participants, the relations that develop between them in the field and the effect these relations exert on research (Herzog 2005;Narayan 1997;Lieblich 2006;Weiner-Levy 2009). Participantobserver methods possess a strikingly social character.…”

“…Palestinians in Israel lack economic, political, judicial and educational equality (Smooha 1978). In practice, few routine encounters take place between Jews and Palestinians; a barrier separates them despite their living in the same country (Herzog 2005).…”

“…One way or another, gift-giving in the research field is scarcely mentioned in ethnographic literature. While an increasing number of recent studies have considered relations that form in the field and their effect on research (Herzog 2005;Narayan 1997;Weiner-Levy 2008), gift-giving-a significant element in such relations-is accorded no attention whatsoever.…”

The long sleep-over: the lived experience of teenagers, parents and staff in an adolescent psychiatric unit

“…Again, the location for the interviews was decided by the parents themselves and allowed them to fit the interviews in amongst other commitments. I also acknowledge Herzog's (2005) point that interview location can be embedded with personal meaning for the parent participants. The figures below depict the recruitment process, after which is a table showing the study's sample.…”

The Feeling of Migration : Narratives of Queer Intimacies and Partner Migration

“…According to Hanna Herzog (2005), interview location plays a central role in qualitative research. Building on my reasoning above, I understand the interview to be not only a technique to gather data, but an emotional and relational interaction.…”