Abstract
As scholars in social sciences and humanities explore new methods for studying increasingly digitized societies, electronic research methods—such as email interviews—have moved from marginal complementary activities to, depending on the purpose of the study, potentially becoming primary methods. However, while there is no lack of discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of such methods, there is little guidance in the literature in terms of how electronic methods can be used effectively and productively in qualitative research. This article adds to the existing body of literature by outlining a strategy for email interviews. The argument of the article is that email interviewing can be fruitfully combined with explorative interviewing, offering the researcher a way to strategically work with the extended time frame that asynchronous interviewing brings with it. This gives the researcher an opportunity to work with open-ended introductory questions, follow-up questions, and cross-fertilization of multiple interviews carried out simultaneously. The article brings forward the argument that a methodological strategy that combines email interviews and explorative interviewing can help the researcher draw the moment of surprise closer together with the moment of analysis and thereby challenge existing theories and knowledge of the study object. The argument is illustrated through examples from an ethnographic study with no in-person elements. Additionally, the article acknowledges that email interviewing is necessary for some significant research tasks and in some cases even a more suitable option than traditional in-person methods due to the study’s objective and the nature of its participants.
Highlights
For contemporary researchers, a range of different methodological options are available when developing their research design—including electronic research methods
The societies that social sciences and humanities study are increasingly taking place in digital environments and, in such studies, in-person research methods might not always be ideal. These conditions point toward the need to further explore electronic research methods, as complementary to more traditional methods (e.g. Flick, 2020) but as methods that are valuable on their own merits
Outlining a strategy that utilizes open-ended introductory questions, follow-up questions and cross-fertilization of multiple interviews carried out simultaneously, the article argues that email interviewing can be a viable option for researchers seeking to generate qualitative in-depth data through electronic research methods
Summary
A range of different methodological options are available when developing their research design—including electronic research methods. The societies that social sciences and humanities study are increasingly taking place in digital environments and, in such studies, in-person research methods might not always be ideal. These conditions point toward the need to further explore electronic research methods, as complementary to more traditional methods (e.g. Flick, 2020) but as methods that are valuable on their own merits. Little is known about how such methods might be applicable in relation to different purposes of qualitative studies. This is important since a study’s methodological choices and objectives are interdependent.
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