Interviews as interactional data

• Published in: Language in society Vol. 40; no. 1; pp. 39 - 50
• Main Authors: Wortham, Stanton, Mortimer, Katherine, Lee, Kathy, Allard, Elaine, White, Kimberly Daniel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.02.2011
• Subjects: African Americans; Churches; Data collection; Diaspora; Diasporas; Hispanics; Interpersonal Communication; Interviews; Jakobson, Roman (1896-1982); Latin American Cultural Groups; Methodology; Methodology (Data Collection); Narratives; Narrators; Paydays; Propositions; Qualitative research; Respect; Respondents; Social identity; Social interaction; Social research; Sociolinguistics; Story telling; Storytelling; White people
• ISSN: 0047-4045; 1469-8013
• DOI: 10.1017/S0047404510000874

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)