9.4 Interview

The types (the ladder of structure):1. Structured (fixed questions, fixed order — the survey; comparability maximum, depth minimum);2. Semi-structured (the interview guide: themes fixed, conversation free — the ethnographer's daily instrument);3. Unstructured (the long conversation — the life-history, the oral tradition: depth maximum);4. The special forms:key-informant interviews (the expert insiders — the badghar on boundary custom, the midwife on birth practice); oral histories (memory as source — the method your Nepali History course's vamshavali-critique trusts when triangulated); focusgroups (the discussion observed — norms on display in the room's arguments); eliteinterviews (officials, leaders — the power-difference's own craft). Craft rules (learn five): open questions before closed ("Tell me about…" before "Did…?"); no leading questions (Unit LEG-II 4.1's cross-examination craft applies in reverse — here you want the witness's story, not yours); one thing at a time; silence tolerated (the second answer follows the pause); record (with consent) + field notes; translation handled honestly (meaning, not just words — Unit LEG- II 4.5). Interview vs survey (the methodological pair): surveys count a population's patterns; interviews understand a person's meanings — the mixed-methods settlement: survey the many, interview the few, observe the settings.