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Interviews as interactional data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

Stanton Wortham ,
Katherine Mortimer ,
Kathy Lee ,
Elaine Allard  and
Kimberly Daniel White
Stanton Wortham
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Education, 3700 Walnut Street, Philadelphia PA 19104-6216, USAstantonw@gse.upenn.edu, ksmortim@dolphin.upenn.edu, leekat@dolphin.upenn.edu, eallard@dolphin.upenn.edu
Katherine Mortimer
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Education, 3700 Walnut Street, Philadelphia PA 19104-6216, USAstantonw@gse.upenn.edu, ksmortim@dolphin.upenn.edu, leekat@dolphin.upenn.edu, eallard@dolphin.upenn.edu
Kathy Lee
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Education, 3700 Walnut Street, Philadelphia PA 19104-6216, USAstantonw@gse.upenn.edu, ksmortim@dolphin.upenn.edu, leekat@dolphin.upenn.edu, eallard@dolphin.upenn.edu
Elaine Allard
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Education, 3700 Walnut Street, Philadelphia PA 19104-6216, USAstantonw@gse.upenn.edu, ksmortim@dolphin.upenn.edu, leekat@dolphin.upenn.edu, eallard@dolphin.upenn.edu
Kimberly Daniel White
Affiliation:
204 Sweetbriar Road, Morrisville, PA 19067, USAkdwespanol@gmail.com
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Abstract

Interviews are designed to gather propositional information communicated through reference and predication. Some lament the fact that interviews always include interactional positioning that presupposes and sometimes creates social identities and power relationships. Interactional aspects of interview events threaten to corrupt the propositional information communicated, and it appears that these aspects need to be controlled. Interviews do often yield useful propositional information, and interviewers must guard against the sometimes-corrupting influence of interactional factors. But we argue that the interactional aspects of interview events can also be valuable data. Interview subjects sometimes position themselves in ways that reveal something about the habitual positioning that characterizes individuals or groups. We illustrate the potential value of this interactional information by describing “payday mugging” stories told by interviewees in one New Latino Diaspora town. (Interview data, narrating events, transference)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 40 , Special Issue 1: Narratives in interviews, Interviews in narrative studies , February 2011 , pp. 39 - 50
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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