Summary
Contents
It will aim to be one of possibly the central contemporary international text in this field for social work researchers, bringing together in one volume the developments and debates that have been seen in recent years in peer reviewed journals, including the Sage journal Qualitative Social Work (founded and co-edited by one of us).
Asking Questions
Asking Questions
This chapter introduces, compares and where appropriate contrasts question-asking forms of inquiry. As a form of inquiry, the interview involves:
- Eliciting and making meaning
- Accessing subjective meanings
- An understanding of the relationship between qualitative interviews and social work interviews
- Variations in interactional forms
Most of the main options when considering differences and distinctions in qualitative interviewing can be understood in terms of:
- Variations in the structure of and participants in the interview.
- Opportunities for various participant-led interview forms.
- Adjuncts and complements to the interview.
We spend much of the chapter developing accounts and examples of these three issues.
In the following central part of the book we address elements of the ‘doing’ of qualitative social work research around the following four themes: questions, stories, location, and (mainly written) traces and deposits. We ...
