printDevelopment Vectors of Interviewing Children:
Inclusion, Trust, Agency
Savinskaya O.B.
Cand. Sci. (Sociol.), Associate Prof. of the Department of Sociology, Leading Research Fellow, International Laboratory for Social Integration Research, National Research University Higher School of Economics osavinskaya@hse.ru
Savinskaya O.B. Development Vectors of Interviewing Children: Inclusion, Trust, Agency. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2023. No 7. P. 63-74
In this article, we discuss how the modern project of childhood, developed within the framework of the new sociology of childhood, forms a methodological framework for rules and techniques in the empirical research methods using the example of interviewing children. Approaches to the understanding of childhood, described in theoretical works, influenced the development of the method. On the other hand, field work made it possible to open up the children’s world, as, for example, in the Chicago school of the first wave. Recognition of the plurality of childhood in the global world, on the one hand, gives rise to many unique practices in field work, on the other hand, creating the ground for the development of common ethical and methodological approaches and principles. The second part of the article presents a systematization of these principles at different stages of field work and, in particular, the application of the interview method and the ethical aspects of its implementation: creation of a child-friendly toolkit, informed consent and the creation of trusting relationships, the dynamics of the interview situation, post-field relations, data analysis and the world of childhood representation in scientific articles and political documents. In the final part of the article, we outline the vectors for further development of the interview method and field practices for studying children.
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