Too often interviewing is seen as simply a tool for data collection, while in reality it is a complex, subtle process that cannot be separated from the dynamic of the project or from the multiple and changing contexts of everyday life. In posing the question, “ what is research for?” , "Interviewing and Representation in Qualitative Research "explores the processes of interviewing as itself a project intimately involved in contemporary debates around knowledge, freedom, power, ethics, modernism postmodernism, and globalisation.

What makes the book distinctive is its focus on...

The problems this book discusses are the same now as they were 25 years ago: unemployment, poor housing, inadequate facilities, poverty, racism, violence. What is the function of a school in such a situation? Although many schools hold reformist ideals, their practice is constrained by organisational demands. School organisation is based upon a coercive theory of social control which is intolerant of expressions of individuality by teachers and pupils. Needs for individuality may be mistaken for deviance, and deviance is at least in part produced by, or exacerbated by, school organisation....

The problems this book discusses are the same now as they were 25 years ago: unemployment, poor housing, inadequate facilities, poverty, racism, violence. What is the function of a school in such a situation? Although many schools hold reformist ideals, their practice is constrained by organisational demands. School organisation is based upon a coercive theory of social control which is intolerant of expressions of individuality by teachers and pupils. Needs for individuality may be mistaken for deviance, and deviance is at least in part produced by, or exacerbated by, school organisation....