Analyzing Race Talk

Book excerpt: The interview is one of the most important sources of social scientific data yet there has been relatively little exploration of the way interviews are conducted and interpreted. By asking internationally respected scholars from a range of traditions in discourse studies including conversation analysis, discursive psychology, and sociolinguistics to respond to the same material, this exciting new book sheds light on some key differences in methodology and theoretical perspective. Key topics are addressed such as the forms of knowledge produced in interviews, the interview as social interaction and the foundations for the study of talk and texts in qualitative research. The use of interviews exploring attitudes to race further broadens the scope of the book, enabling the contributors to explore sensitive issues around the construction and interpretation of interviews on controversial topics and specifically on issues for race and ethnicity.