Forum: Qualitative Social Research (Jan 2007)

The Duplicity of Testimonial Interviews—Unfolding and Utilising Multiple Temporalisation in Compound Procedures and Projects

  • Thomas Scheffer

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 1

Abstract

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This article inquires the relevancy of multiple temporalisations for the discourse analysis of testimonial interviews. Step by step and by help of a range of empirical cases, the author widens the analytical scope (from questions, lines of questions, to supported interrogation by help of files and archives). He does so in order to reconstruct the efficient resources and means of forensic and administrative interrogations. The interviews turn out to be most powerful once they establish duplicity, meaning a partial separation of speech-production and speech-reception. Conclusively the author argues for a symmetrical view on scientific (qualitative) interviews and forensic interrogation. The separation of production and reception is widely ignored in qualitative methods. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0701159

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