Context and conversation: a topology of interviews inspired by grand challenge fieldwork

Paolo Franco, Bareerah Hafeez Hoorani and Ai Ming Chow

Chapter 9 in Methodology to Address Grand Challenges, 2026, pp 193-218 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter reflects on qualitative interviews in light of two considerations: context – sensitivities to an interview's location and social setting – and conversation – the extent to which the researcher and participant equally contribute their thoughts, feelings, and experiences to an interview's substantive content. Building on these considerations, the chapter develops a ‘topology’ of interviews that foregrounds four gradated interview kinds: ex-situ interviews, in-situ interviews, ex-situ conversations, and in-situ conversations. In so doing, the topology charts extended possibilities to think about an interview's contextual emplacement and researcher–participant power dynamics. To illustrate the topology, the authors share fieldwork and interviewing experiences germane to two grand challenges: technological inequalities in a retirement village in Australia and educational inequalities in an impoverished school in Pakistan. To conclude, the chapter offers an appraisal of the topology in terms of its potential to connect with postcolonial and decolonial research agendas.

Keywords: Context; Conversation; Fieldwork; Grand Challenges; Research Interviews; Topology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035314300
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