Expert interviews as a data collecting method:
towards feminist methodologies

Abstract for wg Feminism, Methodology and Change (Jutta Ahlbeck-Rehn)

Nordic Sociology Conference, Turku 18.-20.8.06

In my Ph.D. thesis Sosiologian sukupuoli ("Gender in Sociology", Vastapaino: 2003) I argue that the feminist theoretical discourse remains at the borderline of  sociology, as if an outsider. This outsider’s position has led to my new study in which I want to find out how feminist scholars in social sciences do their positioning in the academia. By conducting expert interviews I am trying to find out about the specific academic context and everyday practices in which feminist scholars strive for a speaker’s position. In this paper I am particularly interested in the data collecting method and its implications for feminist metholodogies. How do expert interviews construct the data? What is to be achieved and what kind of limitations seem to be building up? I would like to argue that a feminist scholar interviewing feminist scholars as experts creates a discussion situation which redirects the very process of conducting interviews.

Kirsti Lempiäinen
FIN-33014 University of Tampere
e-mail: kirsti.lempiainen@uta.fi <mailto:kirsti.lempiainen@uta.fi>