Negotiating Selves: Reflections on ‘Unstructured’ Interviewing

Abstract

In this paper I reflect on a series of informal or ‘unstructured’ interviews with people experiencing chronic job insecurity. I show that far from being merely a source of data these interviews are dynamic social interactions wherein multiple dialogues are conducted between multiple selves. I argue that because interviews are epistemologically ambiguous, morally ambivalent and emotionally charged they cannot be seen simply as repositories of ‘objective facts’ but should also be understood as mutually constructed social events with an existential quality sui generis.