Анкетьорът отвръща на удара (трудности пред постигането на достоверно емпирично знание и стратегии за тяхното преодоляване)
The Interviewer Strikes Back (Difficulties in Attaining Valid Empirical Knowledge, Strategies for Overcoming Them)

Summary/Abstract: The article focuses on the role of interviewers in the implementation of empirical research and their „power“ to recruitment of primary raw information. The interviewer is often squeezed between the demands of researchers and the at times impossible conditions of the fieldwork. Hence, the purpose of this article will be to examine the process of achieving the primary information and reliable sociological knowledge from the interviewer’s point of view. The article analyzes data from in- depth interviews with interviewers conducted specially for the purpose of this study. The rules and regulations for carrying out each stage of the fieldwork are examined in detail so as to determine when, why, and how they are violated. Difficulties that interviewers encounter in their fieldwork are analyzed, as well as the strategies to overcome them – including (especially) the application of non-allowed methods to achieve the objectives. We will focus also on the step-by-step process of implementation of the fieldwork – from instruction, through the identification of respondents and conducting of the interview, to the transmission of the raw data, while always taking into account the personal involvement of the interviewer in the overall process of the fieldwork. Finally, we draw conclusions and make generalizations whereby to formulate proposals how to counter the effect of the „interviewer’s striking back“ upon the reliability and the overall results of the empirical study.

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