Eight Issues to Think About Before Interviewing Farmers

Abstract

This article is based on my personal experience and understanding of conducting research interviews with farmers. It incorporates ethnographic fiction—an approach to writing that is based on first-hand accounts—to examine some of the issues that researchers might think about before interviewing farmers. Research interviews with farmers are unique events because farmers are a sub-cultural group located in a particular landscape, which means that they have quite different experiences, behaviors, and motivations to academic researchers. It is hard to build an understanding of conducting research interviews with farmers other than by doing them. The article focuses on what, for me, were the eight most important issues around interviewing farmers that I had to grapple with. Discussing these issues may add to potential interviewers' understanding of some of the issues with farmer interviews and result in improved interaction and co-operation with them. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs160220