Erfarenhet som diskurs

Att berätta sig ut ur intervjusituationens relativa underordning

Abstract

The aim of this article is to show that it could be meaningful to analyze the ways in which interviewees use personal experience narratives when they are confronted with research questions that force them to make statements in contested political questions. Is it easier to express values or "points of view" in those narratives than in the form of statements or propositions? Rather than providing any empirical finds or concluding remarks, the article contains a discussion of this analytic "point of entry". The discussion starts in a presentation of my own dissertation work, which aims at describing and analyzing how employers and civil servants in labour offices use ethnic categories and the opposition between Swedes and immigrants in describing unemployment and other problems in the labour market, when they are related to the situation for youth and immigrant descent.