Session Information
23 SES 10 B, Researching the Powerful: Seeking Knowledge about Policy
Symposium
Contribution
This paper moves the symposium from consideration of access to discussion of what happens when researchers investigating policy find that their informants chose to exercise their power and status by being uncooperative or aggressive-in other words, through displays of power in the interview situation-in the first case to be discussed, case, in an interview in Romania. In contrast, in a different situation, an interviewer in Portugal was obliged to prove their determination and interest by waiting, showing patience and gradually persuading the informant to collaborate. This raises questions about how to prepare for interviews with powerful people, especially where there is a large status ‘gap’; how to create rapport with an informant (Foddy 1993, Rosemblum 1997) and how to persuade the informant that you understand their position despite its complexity (Walford 1994, Ball 1994). The need for preparation and the capacity to change modes or select strategies is highly important and creates ethical pressures which are not considered in many methodological texts.
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