QUALITATIVE METHODS
10 Semi-structured Interview
Clément Pin
Abstract
A widely used qualitative research technique, the semi-structured interview consists of a verbal interaction solicited by the interviewer from a respondent, based on a grid of questions used in a very flexible manner. The interview aims both to collect information and to give an account of the person’s experience and view of the world, from a comprehensive perspective. It is useful for various types of public policy evaluations, including clarifying the objectives of a policy, analysing its implementation or studying its reception.
Keywords: Qualitative methods, semi-structured interview, induction, empathy, case study, ideal-type, realist evaluation
I. What does this method consist of?
The semi-structured interview is a data collection technique widely used in qualitative research in the social sciences. In very general terms, it is radically different from a questionnaire survey, which aims to produce standardised data on a vast population in order to search for regularities in the variation of opinions or attitudes between groups of individuals by statistical processing. The practice of interviewing, whatever its specific form, is used to produce data that allow us to better understand the singularity of the experience that individuals or groups of individuals have of their relations with others, with institutions, or more broadly of social phenomena. While the qualitative and in-depth study of a singular case may in itself give rise to knowledge with a certain degree of generalisation, this knowledge is usually derived from data processing using several case studies and ideal-types, as well as from cross-checking with data collected by means of the other two classic qualitative techniques, namely observation and the analysis of written sources. Qualitative techniques can also be used in mixed method research.
The practice of interviewing emerged in the nineteenth century in the field of clinical psychology and social enquiry for medical and political purposes respectively. It developed as a research technique in its own right during the 20th century in the United States and then in Europe in a comprehensive sociological approach in the wake of the work of Max Weber. The function of the interview is to gather the words of individuals, the general theoretical postulate being that social phenomena cannot be understood and therefore explained independently of the meaning that individuals give to their actions. On this common basis, several scientific interview practices have been progressively formalised, the main ones being the ethnographic interview, the non-directive interview and the semi-structured interview. However, it is the latter that has become the most widely used technique in policy analysis in recent decades, particularly in France (Pinson, Sala Pala, 2017). In this context, it is often used, if not as an exclusive mode of data collection, at least as a privileged