I am in the process of writing grant applications for dissertation research and part of my explanation for my need for continued funding is that I am interviewing a population that requires a high level of trust, acceptance, and TIME in order to obtain rich, complex, and honest interview data. Many of the people in my "sample" are political leaders - they have a well-practiced rhetoric and particular spin and it takes several interviews and meetings to even begin to get past the "party line" and to the more individualized narratives. I want to make this point as a justification for further time needed in the field. Does anyone have any methodology literature or case studies they could point to that might help solidify my argument?
Literature Query: Qualitative Methods for Interviewing/Observing Political Leaders and other So-Called "Elites"
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I would start with the chapter on "Interviewing Elites" by Teresa Odendahl and Aileen M. Shaw in The Handbook of Interview Research: Context & Method (eds. Gubrium and Holstein, 2001), both for the content of the chapter and the great citation collection.
Additional citations you might find helpful:
- Harvey, William S. "Strategies for conducting elite interviews." Qualitative Research, vol. 11 no. 4, 2011. pp. 431-441
- Stephens, Neil. "Collecting data from elites and ultra elites: telephone and face-to-face interviews with macroeconomists." Qualitative Research, vol. 7 no. 2, 2007. pp. 203-216.
- Rivera, Sharon Werning, Polina M. Kozyreva, and Eduard G. Sarovskii. "Interviewing Political Elites: Lessons from Russia." Political Science and Politics, Issue 35, 2002. pp. 683-688.
- Ross, Karen. "Political elites and the pragmatic paradigm: Notes from a feminist researcher - in the field and out to lunch." International Journal of Social Research Methodology, Volume 4, Issue 2, 2001. p.155-166.
- Hertz R. and Imber, J. B. Studying Elites using Qualitative Methods. A Sage Publication. 1995.
- Parsons, et al. "The Effect of Interviewer Characteristics On Gatekeeper Resistance in Surveys of Elite Populations." Evaluation Review, Vol 17, No. 2, 1993. pp. 131-143.
- Eldersveld, Samuel James. Political elites in modern societies: empirical research and democratic theory. University of Michigan Press, 1989.
- Gordon, D. F. "Getting close by staying distant: Fieldwork with proselytizing groups." Qualitative Sociology, 10, 1987. pp.267-287.
- Marcus, Geroge E. "Ethnographic Research Among Elites in the Kingdom of Tongo: Some Methodological Considerations." Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 52, No. 3, July 1979. pp. 135-151.
- Vincent, Joan. "Politicanl Anthopology: Manipulative Strategies." Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 7, 1978. pp. 175-194.
- Becker. T. M. & Meyers, P.R. "Empathy and Bravado: Interviewing reluctant bureaucrats." Public Opinion Quarterly 38, 1974. pp. 605-613.
- Zuckerman, Harriet. "Interviewing an Ultra-Elite." Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol 36, issue 2, 1972. pp. 159-175.
- Welch, et al. "Interviewing Elites in International Organizations: a Balancing Act for the Researcher." Year?. Accessed at http://www.uni-muenster.de/PeaCon/dgs-mills/mills-texte/The%20QualitativeInterview-InternationalBusinessResearch.htm
*** Thanks to Dr. Sharon Hicks-Bartlett for pointing me in the direction of many of these references in 2009.***
UPDATED:
Two more citations, the second of which is urban-related:
- Puwar, N. "Reflections on Interviewing Women MPs" Sociological Research Online, vol. 2, no. 1. 1997. (http://www.socresonline.org.uk/2/1/4.html)
- Rice, Gareth. "Reflections on interviewing elites." Area, 42. June 2009. (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1475-4762.2009.00898.x/full)
thanks!
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As Brian points to quite thoroughly, your question definitely concerns the classic problems with interviewing elites - access, control, spin, selection bias, etc. There is not much to add to his comprehensive bibliography that you have here, though the one other classic urban texts with regard to elites (if not so much the methodology of studying them) are of course Clarence Stone's work (esp. Regime Politics,1989) and indeed his Atlanta predecessor Floyd Hunter, who used an innovative interview-based method of looking at local power structures (e.g. Hunter, 1953). Bill Domhoff's books Who Rules America? and The Power Elite and the State (as well as his newer co-authored one on Santa Cruz) get at this too and discuss much of this literature, including some methods issues. An online version of some of the relevant bits of this discussion, with more references, can be found here: http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/local/atlanta.html and here: http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/theory/mills_critique.html Again, these are more fundamental empirical cases and broader theoretical takes than methods texts, but there you go.
A final reference that I just pulled from one of those Domhoff links that looks much more methodological and relevant (though I haven't read it):
- Kadushin, C., "Power, Influence, and Social Circles: A New Methodology for Studying Opinion Makers," American Sociological Review 33 (1968), pp. 685-698.