In their talk, Vassenden and Mangset answer to a recent interactionist/situationist critique of qualitative interviews. This critique holds that because interviews are social encounters with realities in themselves, interviews cannot really produce knowledge beyond these encounters. Turning the mirror, Mangset and Vassenden demonstrate the undetected value that situationalism/interactionism holds for interviewing. Importantly, a promise of situational interviewing is that it helps us make sense of contradictions, ambiguities, and disagreements within and between interviews. This promise is shown through examination of contradictions in and between sociological studies of (i) middle-class identities, and (ii) the professional ideals of elite bureaucrats.
Anders Vassenden is professor of sociology at the University of Stavanger, Norway, dept. of Media and Social Sciences. His research interests include social class, child welfare, housing studies, and ethnic relations. His work in these substantive areas, are informed by interactionism, cultural sociology, and qualitative methods.
Marte Mangset is associate professor at the dept. of Sociology at the University of Oslo, Norway. Her research interests are political, economic, and cultural sociology, elites, public administration and the legal profession, state-market relations, the relationship between expertise and power. Methodologically, her expertise is in comparative approaches and qualitative methods.