The Active Interview

by James A. Holstein, Jaber F. Gubrium

Interviews were once regarded as the pipeline through which information was transmitted from a passive subject to an omniscient researcher. However the new "active interview" considers interviewers and interviewees as equal partners in constructing meaning around an interview. This interpretation changes a range of elements in the interview process - from the way of conceiving a sample to the ways in which the interview may be conducted and the results analyzed. In this guide, the authors outline the differences between active and traditional interviews and give novice researchers clear guidelines on conducting a successful interview.

Genres: Nonfiction

96 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1995

Reviews

[Greta · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a great book on interviewing which is seen as 'interpretively active, implicating meaning-making practices on the part of both interviews and respondents.' (p. 4) This might not sound as ground-breaking as it seems like feminist approach to research, which also focuses on positionality and reflexivity. Nevertheless, they do not call themselves feminists and I'm not here to argue that they should.

It's just a really nice and concise book to get some basic knowledge on what it means to interview, descriptive vs meaning-making interviewing, the relationship between interviewer, interviewee and knowledge production (aka who how and what gets to say) or, as James A. Holstein and Jaber F. Gubrium argue:
' The goal is to show how interview responses are produced in the interaction between interviewer and respondent, without losing sight of the meanings produced or the circumstances that condition the meaning-making process. The analytic objective is not merely to describe the situated production of talk but to show how what is being said relates to the experiences and lives being studied.' (p. 79-80)

While I thoroughly enjoyed reading, I feel like it could have been a perfect academic article rather than a book. At some points it felt repetitive. Also, I wish they had used more examples from their own research as I enjoyed reading them and their analysis at the end of the book (chapters 6 and 7). Hence, 4 stars.

[Christy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book feels dated (and is dated) so this might not really be a fault... It's hard to parse what's new here: the authors take a descriptive approach to elaborating why the interview subject is not a stable entity, nor one that can be plumbed for objective information. Knowledge/history is actively constructed in the interview between the interviewer and interviewee. The authors advocate for a (very) few methodological considerations that might help an interviewer navigate that--encouraging multiple viewpoints, setting up context, being clear about the "whats" and "hows" in the research, etc. At this point, that all seems obvious. Maybe in 1995 this was a more radical position? In my opinion, there's not a lot of re-read value here, expect maybe to mark some kind of historical shift in the field of qualitative research (if it does indeed mark a shift).

[Valeriana · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must have reference guide for conducting research interviews with step by step processes and scripts that will help you maintain academic rigor.