Description
Book SynopsisMishler presents a powerful critique of current views on research interviewing, and offers a new approach. He sees traditional interviewing as suppressing discourse and argues that an interview is actually a type of narrative in which respondents should have a more extensive role as participants and collaborators.
Trade ReviewA splendid book. Mishler offers fresh and original insights that are firmly grounded in theory and practice. -- Frederick Erickson, University of Pennsylvania
The book is superb. The best statement of the narrative position to date in the social sciences. -- Bertram J. Cohler, University of Chicago
A passionate argument for replacing the survey interview with a different model: the uninterrupted narrative flow to be analyzed as text. -- Howard Schuman * Contemporary Psychology *
Mishler raises issues that need to be addressed by survey researchers regardless of their specialization… [
Research Interviewing] will be of particular interest to those who use surveys as a method of studying major life events: family relationships, factors relating to the quality of life, impact of health events, major economic or political issues and their impacts, factors in the work life, etc. The objective of these interviews is not to generate descriptive statistics but to understand and interpret significant factors of the individual’s experiences and reactions. -- Charles Cannell * Public Opinion Quarterly *
An important contribution to the understanding of how alternative methods for analyzing interview data can produce useful insights. -- Gerald L. Wilson * Quarterly Journal of Speech *
Mishler shows both his familiarity with survey research and his sophistication… [He] builds a powerful argument… Since his book pulls together several major methodological issues, it will receive a welcome among qualitative sociologists. It is a major contribution to the literature on methods. -- Kathy Charmaz * American Journal of Sociology *
Those working at the state of the art…will find an eclectic, sophisticated and humane argument which should broaden not only their horizons but those of the unreconstructed standard practitioner. -- Nigel Fielding * British Journal of Psychology *
[An] important book that examines the social and behavioral science research interview method. Mishler argues that although we recognize the interview as a dialogic speech event, interviews are rarely permitted to function as discourse. The book instructs readers on how interviews can be analyzed and interpreted as narratives; it offers alternative methods to the standard interviewing techniques. -- Bruce A. Austin * Communication Booknotes *
This book continues an important discussion on meaning and construction of meaning in research interviews in the social sciences…
Research Interviewing will be of interest to those who are concerned with the politics of research, as well as to those producers or consumers of social science research who are considering the use of interviews. * Harvard Educational Review *
Table of ContentsIntroduction Problems of the Research Interview 1. Standard Practice 2. Research Interviews as Speech Events 3. The Joint Construction of Meaning 4. Language, Meaning, and Narrative Analysis 5. Meaning in Context and the Empowerment of Respondents Conclusion: Prospects for Critical Research Appendix: Suggested Reading in Narrative Analysis Notes Reference Index
