The Importance of Boundary Objects in Transcultural Interviewing

Abstract

This article combines the idea of the active interview with insights from science studies and suggests that some concepts from science studies, like boundary objects and trading zones, should be utilized to understand and facilitate the production and analysis of data in a transcultural interview. This is illustrated by examples from interviews that the author conducted with women computer science students and faculty in a university in Malaysia. The article argues that the understanding of, as well as the performance of the transcultural interview might benefit from the highly pragmatic character of scientific investigations, focusing on using locally available resources to produce knowledge; and that this in turn may enhance our capacity to do feminist research.