Interviewing Experts

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

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2. Introduction: Expert Interviews — An Introduction to a New Methodological Debate

   1. Introduction: Expert Interviews — An Introduction to a New Methodological Debate

      • Alexander Bogner, Beate Littig, Wolfgang Menz

      Pages 1-13

3. Theoretical Concepts: Methodology of Expert Interviews

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 15-15

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   2. The Expert Interview and Changes in Knowledge Production

      • Michael Meuser, Ulrike Nagel

      Pages 17-42

   3. The Theory-Generating Expert Interview: Epistemological Interest, Forms of Knowledge, Interaction

      • Alexander Bogner, Wolfgang Menz

      Pages 43-80

   4. At Eye Level: The Expert Interview — a Talk between Expert and Quasi-expert

      • Michaela Pfadenhauer

      Pages 81-97

   5. Interviewing the Elite — Interviewing Experts: Is There a Difference?

      • Beate Littig

      Pages 98-113

4. Methodological Practice: Generating Data

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 115-115

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   2. On Interviewing “Good” and “Bad” Experts

      • Jochen Gläser, Grit Laudel

      Pages 117-137

   3. Interviewing Experts in Political Science: A Reflection on Gender and Policy Effects Based on Secondary Analysis

      • Gabriele Abels, Maria Behrens

      Pages 138-156

   4. Expert Interviews on the Telephone: A Difficult Undertaking

      • Gabriela B. Christmann

      Pages 157-183

   5. Expert versus Researcher: Ethical Considerations in the Process of Bargaining a Study

      • Vaida Obelenė

      Pages 184-200

5. Fields of Application: Applications of Expert Interviews in Different Fields of Research

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 201-201

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   2. How to Interview Managers? Methodical and Methodological Aspects of Expert Interviews as a Qualitative Method in Empirical Social Research

      • Rainer Trinczek

      Pages 203-216

   3. Expert Interviews in Interpretive Organizational Research

      • Ulrike Froschauer, Manfred Lueger

      Pages 217-234

   4. Between Scientific Standards and Claims to Efficiency: Expert Interviews in Programme Evaluation

      • Angela Wroblewski, Andrea Leitner

      Pages 235-251

   5. The Delphi Method: Eliciting Experts’ Knowledge in Technology Foresight

      • Georg Aichholzer

      Pages 252-274

6. Back Matter

   Pages 275-281

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Expert interviews are today a standard method of qualitative approach in the social sciences. It is surprising that methodological reflections about the expert interview are still lacking. This book gives a comprehensive overview of their theory and practice. The contributors are experienced theorists and practitioners of expert interviews.

• empirical social research
• evaluation
• gender
• interview
• Policy
• political science
• social research
• social science

• Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria

  Alexander Bogner

• Institute of Advanced Studies, Austria

  Beate Littig

• Institute for Social Science Research, Germany

  Wolfgang Menz

ALEXANDER BOGNER is a sociologist and researcher at the Institute of Technology Assessment, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria. He teaches Qualitative Methods at the University of Vienna and his research interests include science and technology studies, sociology of biopolitics and methods of empirical social research.

BEATE LITTIG is Head of the Sociology Department at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna, Austria. She studies Sociology at the Universities of Göttingen, Hamburg and at the Free University Berlin. Her research and teaching include qualitative methods, gender studies, environmental sociology and the sociology of work.

WOLFGANG MENZ is a researcher at the Institute for Social Science Research, ISF München, Germany. He studied Sociology und Political Science at the Universities of Marburg, Frankfurt and Edinburgh. He lectures at the Universities of Vienna and Frankfurt and his research interests include the sociology of work and organisation, science studies and methods of qualitative research.

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