Email Interviews: A Guide to Research Design and Implementation

Linköpings universitet, Tema teknik och social förändring Linköpings universitet, Filosofiska fakulteten Univ Calif Santa Cruz, CA 95064 USA 2021

Dahlin, Emma

As scholars in social sciences and humanities explore new methods for studying increasingly digitized societies, electronic research methods-such as email interviews-have moved from marginal complementary activities to, depending on the purpose of the study, potentially becoming primary methods. However, while there is no lack of discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of such methods, there is little guidance in the literature in terms of how electronic methods can be used effectively and productively in qualitative research. This article adds to the existing body of literature by outlining a strategy for email interviews. The argument of the article is that email interviewing can be fruitfully combined with explorative interviewing, offering the researcher a way to strategically work with the extended time frame that asynchronous interviewing brings with it. This gives the researcher an opportunity to work with open-ended introductory questions, follow-up questions, and cross-fertilization of multiple interviews carried out simultaneously. The article brings forward the argument that a methodological strategy that combines email interviews and explorative interviewing can help the researcher draw the moment of surprise closer together with the moment of analysis and thereby challenge existing theories and knowledge of the study object. The argument is illustrated through examples from an ethnographic study with no in-person elements. Additionally, the article acknowledges that email interviewing is necessary for some significant research tasks and in some cases even a more suitable option than traditional in-person methods due to the studys objective and the nature of its participants.

methods in qualitative inquiry; narrative; ethnography; ethnomethodology; case study; Gender Studies; Genusstudier; Article in journal; info:eu-repo/semantics/article; text

10.1177.16094069211025453

application/pdf
English

UPE oai:DiVA.org:liu-178981
doi:10.1177/16094069211025453
ISI:000688137900001
1280479706

UPPSALA UNIV LIBR
From OAIster®, provided by the OCLC Cooperative.

edsoai.on1280479706