Oral History

Notes Workshop July 2023

• Strong relation to the people
• transnational analysis
• how to identify key players and bring that together
• Trust! is very important
• What are representative amounts of samples?
• Memory bias & fallibility, as well as manipulation can be a problem
• it’s important to balance the sample to not reproduce certain things
• how to deal with legacy is an interesting question
• Process of an oral history interview: preparing > conducting > analyse
• Preparing
  • Spot someone relevant and get information
  • find the neutral-ish tone and then act like a mirror
  • a guide composed of themes, according to your situation
• Conducting
  • Oral history is a negociation
  • again: build trust and set expectations
  1. Setting: where to do the interview. Look for environments that support the interview in different ways; at ease, materially relevant to questions. all settings are socially situated and contain power relations
  2. Material: Interview Guide, note material, recorder
  3. Conversation:
     • Researcher is a listener
     • the participant is the talker
  4. Ending the Interview
     • Saturation point ~1h
     • Follow-up
     • Write memo (context)
     • Transcribe asap
• Open ended questions can also be overwhelming
• “Interviews are like pancakes, the first one is always kind of wasted”
• Analysing Interviews with GTM
  • focus on experience
  • new theories through indiction
  • parallel organisation of research
  • Coding interviews: Factual data and personal experience (of the participant)
  • Coding involves creating props and figuring out how to relate to each others