Interviews, Expert

Beate Littig

An expert interview is a semistandardized interview by one or more interviewers with a person identified as a so-called expert and serves to generate data in a research context. This raises the following questions: What constitutes an expert? Why are experts of such particular interest in a social and/or political scientific research setting? The answer lies primarily in the knowledge that they have acquired in the course of their (professional) activities. Experts not only have (a) specialist professional or technical knowledge and (b) knowledge of organizational procedures and processes, but they also have (c) interpretative and background knowledge (“know-how” and “know-why”) in their particular field. Such professional/technical knowledge and process knowledge are generally explicit knowledge, which experts can usually communicate in a systematic and deliberate manner. Interpretive and background knowledge is predominantly tacit and draws on the relevant individual experiences, organizational social practices, or collective interpretive patterns encountered by an ...

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