A Practical Introduction to In-depth Interviewing

Alan Morris is an urban sociologist based in the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government, at the University of Technology, Sydney. He has a PhD in Sociology from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. His PhD was a major qualitative study of inner city transition in Johannesburg during the final years of apartheid. The book based on his PhD, Bleakness and Light: Inner-City Transition in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, (1999, reprinted 2001) is viewed as one of the key South African texts in urban studies. In Australia his main research focus has been on the impact of housing tenure on older people who are dependent on the age pension for their income. His research interests include, housing, ageing, urban marginality and social policy. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals in Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and South Africa.

I cannot recommend Alan Morris’ excellent book on in-depth interviewing too highly for all aspiring social science interviewers. It should be essential reading for postgraduate and undergraduate students who want to know exactly how to design, undertake and analyse semi-structured interviews.

• Chapter 1: The what and why of in-­depth interviewingChapter 2: Ethics – the need to tread carefullyChapter 3: Developing the interview guideChapter 4: Selecting, finding and accessing research participantsChapter 5: Preparing for the interviewChapter 6: Conducting the interviewChapter 7: Dealing with difficulties and the unexpectedChapter 8: Transcribing, analysing and writing up the interviews