Dennis, B., Jozkowski, K.N., (2022, May 18-May 22). Contentious interviewing on sensitive topics: A performative exploration of possibilities. International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry Annual Meeting, virtual.
In a large, multi-method team-based study of abortion attitudes, 170 (plus 25 pilots) individual one-on-one interviews were conducted with selected survey responders representing a range of attitudes as reported through the survey. Some of these interviews proved particularly challenging in terms of interview/interviewee dynamics related to interviewees using language and examples that were particularly contentious and seemed oriented toward getting negative responses from the interviewers. This paper explores questions of equity and expression relevant to those dynamics. We begin with a careful critical, reconstructive analysis of moments in the interviews that were marked by contentious discomfort. The analysis focuses on the interviewer/interviewee dynamics exploring the gendered, expertise, equity aspects of the ways in which contention was performed. The paper explores the performative nature of contention in interviews particularly in the context of sensitive topic studies and examines the role of contention in efforts to understand attitudes.