Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
ESA 2021 Conference – Sociological Knowledges for Alternative Futures, Barcelona, İspanya, 31 Ağustos - 03 Eylül 2021, ss.756-757
Discussions on the benefits and drawbacks of online interviewing began long before the COVID-19. Yet, since the pandemic conditions excessively obstructed the predominant traditional (face-to-face) interviewing, the adoption of relatively marginal online tools may have accelerated and deemed inevitable due to the possibility of future long-term “social distancing” practices. In such a time when the digitalization of qualitative methods might appear as a simpler solution, have interviewers moved their research to digital platforms or searched for ways to carry out face-to-face interviews? Do they plan on carrying out online interviews after the pandemic? Do researchers think online interviewing affects their research in any way? Deriving from such an inquiry, this study aims to gain insights into the personal, interpersonal, and structural dynamics of online interviewing during COVID-19. Based on the online in-depth interviews carried out with 15 graduate students, academics, or researchers in the area of sociology who have used – or are still using – online interviewing methods in their research during COVID-19, this study discusses whether technical skills (of both interviewers and interviewees), spatial distance, lack of spatial control, limitations of sampling and consent issues in online interviewing have impacts on the content and/or outcomes of their research. Hence, the main question in this study is not only whether cam-tocam can substitute for, or replace, face-to-face interviewing, but more importantly, whether online interviewing affects the processes of sociological knowledge production.