Collaboration and censorship in the oral history interview

The objective of this article is to highlight seldom considered aspects of the relationship between the researcher and the interviewee in feminist oral history research. As part of a study of the work of British women sociologists the researcher is undertaking a series of oral history interviews with retired academics. The attempts to follow social science ethical injections concerning the protection of human subjects and feminist injunctions to maximize subject collaboration and researcher reflexivity have raised several issues prior to, during and after the interviews. Issues of collaboration and censorship impinge on the research process at every stage of the work and, along with the personal and structural power relations of those involved, determine, in unanticipated ways, the final research product.     

Practical considerations in the interview and evaluation of sexual offenders

The evaluation and assessment of sexual offenders is different than any other type of evaluation, and most clinicians are not properly trained to interview this population. This article addresses the clinical and ethical issues particular to the interview, assessment, and evaluation of these types of offenders. It offers both practical information regarding the interview itself, along with an overview of classification systems, paraphilias, and assessment techniques used with this population. In addition, issues related to risk assessment and risk management are also addressed, and an introduction to the use of actuarial risk assessment instruments is provided.     

An interview with W. H. Hutt

W. H. Hutt is 85 years old and is one of the most important economists of this century. That this is too little appreciated is largely because his academic career did not take place in his native England. Instead, in 1928, after a short career in publishing, the graduate of the London School of Economics set sail for South Africa and the University of Cape Town. During his 37 years there, Professor Hutt produced an impressive body of work, some of which have become classics among his devotees, includingThe Theory of Collective Bargaining (1930),Economists and the Public (1936),The Theory of Idle Resources (1939),Plan for Reconstruction (1943),Keynesianism — Retrospect & Prospect (1963), andThe Economics of the Colour Bar (1964). Hutt came to the United States in December 1965 to serve as a visiting professor at the University of Virginia, and has served in a similar capacity at many American universities. While in the United States Hutt has produced such works asThe Strike-Threat System (1973),A Rehabilitation of Say’s Law (1975), andThe Keynesian Episode (1979). Professor Hutt currently is Emeritus Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of Dallas and he continues to work on an autobiography and a new book, tentatively titledLabor’s Disadvantage.     

The “Zen Lady” An interview with Insoo Kim Berg

In May this year, Insoo Kim Berg was a visiting professor at Southern Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service in Adelaide. Heather Hayes spoke with Insoo about her work at the Brief Family Therapy Center, Milwaukee, where she is a co-director.     

Stancetaking and the joint construction of zine producer identities in a research interview

This article examines the construction of zine producer identities (self and other) during a research interview. Zines are self‐published texts that circulate in mainly underground communities. In this study, I draw on dialogic understandings of the notion of ‘stance’ to show how a zine producer accomplishes a situated identity performance in the interview that also functions as an interdiscursive move in a larger conversation about the role Do‐It‐Yourself (DIY) ethics should play in zine communities. Specifically, I show how this speaker displays stances in relation to recognizable social types within zine communities but also the canonical stances associated with these social types. I unpack the features that work in support of this stancetaking, including discourse markers, constructed dialogue, referring terms, and prosodic cues. The analysis also foregrounds how the interviewer's turns contributed to these emergent stance displays, which furthers our understanding of the dynamic social context of the research interview.     

Young people with complex needs meet complex organizations: an interview study with Swedish professionals about sustainable work practices

ABSTRACT

This paper concerns preconditions for the well-being of young people with mental ill-health combined with social vulnerabilities, also referred to as youth with complex needs. Research questions are: What barriers to sustainable work practices for young people labelled as having complex needs do professionals encounter? What do professionals identify as possible ways to overcome these barriers? Sustainable work practices are reflected in three themes: empowerment, relationships and collaboration. The findings are based on semi-structured interviews with 24 professionals, 3 men and 21 women, working in psychiatric care and the social services in two Swedish municipalities in 2016 and 2017. Major barriers are lack of continuity and co-ordination in staff and support, and fragmentation of work practices. As a consequence of the increased specialization of human service organizations, young people have to interact with many different professionals which could cause disparate interventions. Possible ways mentioned to overcome these barriers are supported through good interactional skills, using keyworkers as well therapeutic alliances, wrap-around services and case management. Complexity is linked to organizations and work practices rather than to young people. An often dysfunctional service delivery system in organizations with rigid boundaries may also affect professionals’ aim for sustainable support.     

The effect of the interview on the interviewee

This paper is concerned with the effects of participating in semistructured interviews on the interviewees. It is based on evidence supplied by young adult women who were interviewed a number of times and asked about their previous interviews. While most claimed to have little recall of these earlier events, they did remember them as interesting and/or enjoyable. This was because the interview focused on them with the guaranteed but detached interest of the interviewer. Informants' reflections on previous interviews showed that there was a range of impact on women's views from (a)recording information; (b)clarification of views; (c)review of position; and (d)discovery of something new. Beyond interviews interacting with the informant's views there is also evidence that some interviewees' actions outside the interview were influenced by their participation. The fact that interviews involve the interaction of participants is now recognized in a number of intellectual approaches but the variability of this has not been documented.     

Interpretation and interview context: examining the General Social Survey name generator using cognitive methods

This paper reports on a small (N=50) study of how survey respondents interpret the General Social Survey (GSS)'s “discuss important matters” name generator. The study involved concurrent think-aloud interviews, in which respondents were debriefed about their thought processes immediately after answering the name generator. Analyses of these responses indicate that some respondents had difficulty in specifying what was meant by the term “important matters”; sizable minorities understood the question in terms of frequency of contact or intimacy rather than in terms of specific social exchanges. Most of those interviewed said that their “important matters” had to do with personal/intimate relationships or other issues of personal life (e.g., finances, hobbies, or health), but appreciable numbers referred to work and political discussions. An interview context experiment revealed that a respondent's definition of “important matters” can be shaped by the substantive content of the preceding parts of an interview schedule. Notwithstanding these findings, the composition of the networks elicited in the study does not appear to vary substantially across interpretations of the name generator. We conclude that the name generator succeeds in measuring “core” discussion networks, though with somewhat nonspecific content. Implications for the measurement of personal networks in sample surveys are discussed.     

An interview with George Hallett

The distinguished South African photographer George Hallett speaks about his childhood, schooling, career in photography, exile in Europe and return to South Africa. Born in District Six and raised in Hout Bay, Hallett was introduced to the world of politics, literature and art by the novelist Richard Rive, who was his high school English teacher, and by the poet James Matthews and artist Peter Clarke, who became friends, as well as mentors. Hallett began his photographic career in Cape Town, but, struggling under the restrictions of life under apartheid, soon left for London. In Britain and, later, France and the Netherlands, he established himself as a leading photojournalist and fine art photographer. After brief stays in the United States and Zimbabwe, he returned to South Africa to photograph the 1994 elections for the African National Congress.     

An interview with bill scales

The mission of a mutual benefit association is so inexorably intertwined with its membership that a change in one cannot succeed without a corresponding change in the other. Two case studies of United Ways' state associations' “remissioning” initiatives give details on the dynamic interplay of mission and membership in mutual benefit associations, a fundamental characteristic that distinguishes them from public benefit nonprofits. To anticipate change, association managers must focus on the shifting demands from their members' stakeholders. They also must clearly understand the nature of their membership and who represent their members when members are organizations, and they must be ready to engage in intra-association politics to effect a change in mission.     

Narrative stability in interview accounts

We identify and discuss the phenomenon of narrative stability, in the context of current methodological literature on interviewing. It derives from two independent studies, undertaken fifteen years apart, of members of the same genetics research group who were interviewed by different researchers. The first (‘Discovery’) interviews were collected very soon after the breakthrough was first published. The second (‘Legacy’) interviews were based on informants looking back at those events. Some strikingly similar narrative episodes across those accounts suggest strong narrative stability. In the course of interviews, informants reproduce biographical stories that are well sedimented. Not all interview materials, therefore, should be thought of exclusively in terms of co-production between interviewer and informant.     

“Sensory Ordering” in Nurses' Clinical Decision‐Making: Making Visible Senses,Sensing, and “Sensory Work” in the Hospital

The objective of this article is to present a study on the constitutive role of senses in clinical decision‐making. The methodology is based on a series of focus groups with nurses in various hospital departments. Based on a narrative approach, our study examines “sensory work” in clinical decision‐making in order to reveal its specificity in the clinical work of nurses. Nurses shared stories—in focus groups—about the influence of senses in clinical decision‐making. The analysis of clinical narratives helped to identify various situations revealing the “sensory work” that underlines clinical decision‐making. We put the emphasis on the spectrum of sensory activities and the interactions occurring during a clinical decision‐making. One specific contribution of our study is to make visible the “sensory ordering” at work as constituted by interactions between nurses during a clinical assessment.     

Explorations into the meaning of social network interview data

This paper is concerned with issues arising in the use of interview-derived social network data. First, are respondents' relationships correctly reported? Data from dyads in which respondents and those they named were both interviewed indicate high agreement on the characteristics of the relationships. Second, which relationships are named and which are not? Data from interviews, supplemented with a long list of individuals, some of whom were spontaneously named and some of whom were also known but not named, indicate that respondents select in terms of frequency, recency, and how well they know the person, but, unexpectedly, not duration. Comparison of men's and women's selections suggests that women more strongly limit their naming to those they know very well.     

Working in the Trenches Commentary on Ruth Fallenbaum's Paper

In this paper I respond to Ruth Fallenbaum's account of clinical work with a group of women postal workers. I raise questions about the intersect of political analysis and psychoanalysis, the particular dynamic and structural demands on women workers, as well as the dynamics of precocity in relation to poverty and striving. The work Fallenbaum reports is a wonderful exemplar of clinical work that must remain sensitive on its own terms while the clinician keeps an eye on matters of class, race, and gender. Her essay makes a good argument for the importance of interdisciplinary thinking in clinical psychoanalysis as well as the importance of models of subjectivity in which multiple narratives, loyalties, and experiences are normative.     

Identifying blues: an interview with lesbian blues musician and lyricist Gaye Adegbalola. Interview by Carmen Phelps

In this interview, blues lyricist and musician Gaye Adegbalola shares with audiences how various political, social, and artistic influences have inspired her work since her activist years during the Black Arts Movement leading up to the present day. As a lesbian blues artist, Adegbalola's personal and artistic development implicates the often inextricable and intimate relationships between artistic production, political involvement, and individual fulfillment.     

The psychological goods on clinical social work: a content analysis of the clinical social work and social justice literature

The purpose of this content analysis was to evaluate the extant literature on clinical social work and social justice. In July 2009, an online search of the university databases EBSCO Host (1988–2009) was conducted to identify articles on clinical social work and social justice. Thirty-six peer reviewed journal articles were identified and extracted. The majority were non-empirical articles (75%) published in the United States (94%) over a 21-year period from 1988 to 2009. Overall, clinical social work practice was described as psychological and/or sociopolitical interventions that had a direct and/or indirect effect on psychological and sociopolitical level social justice outcomes. Theories and practices consistent with social justice were advanced. These findings suggest that clinical social work's promotion of psychological well-being remains an underdeveloped area in the scholarly and research literature. In this era of professional educational reform, additional research and professional training on social justice based clinical social work practice is warranted.     

Bridging the Gap Between Micro and Macro Practice

The bifurcated structure of social work education, micro and macro, is often unwarranted and restrictive. This split forces a premature and unnecessarily narrow focus in study and practice. In order to adequately pursue social justice and deal with issues of power and oppression in a clinical context, this bifurcated structure of social work must somehow be unified. A narrative–deconstructive model of practice, nested in the postmodern–poststructuralist paradigm and embodied in the work of White and Epston offers a resolution to this dilemma. The authors provide a conceptual base for understanding this model, highlight those socio-political elements of the model that integrate clinical practice with social change, present examples, and discuss implications for social work education.     

Habermas talking: An interview

Theory and Society -