Paper short abstract:

Using a detailed transcript, I show my inadequate response to an interviewee’s sudden disclosure and her appeal for rapport in a certain cultural discourse of sexual intimacy. I reflect on this and other published difficult moments so that I and my interviewees might create ‘liveable with’ stories

Paper long abstract:

Drawing on an interview transcript excerpt from my own research investigating the experience of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis I will be showing my inadequate response to a moment of sudden disclosure which I, as interviewer participant, found difficult. My reflecting on this challenging moment sheds light on the workings of rapport in the delicate balance between pursuing knowledge and providing a duty of care to the interviewee participants in my research. I will also be showing, through a published transcript excerpt, how this conceivably elusive equilibrium has, in a different way, been considered by Sinding and Aronson (2003). These authors reflect on how participants, in the joint story-creating of their interviews, become vulnerable to perceived failures in their lives as they recognise that they cannot live up to the surrounding cultural discourses regarding, for example, what it means to have 'a good death' or be 'a good caregiver'. I will be further illustrating this through the writings of Rapley (2004) and Oakley (1981) in their deconstructing of the professional discourse of what it means to be 'a good interviewer'. These authors remove the methodological gloss from ideas of rapport and neutrality, revealing to different extents, what both describe as intimate reciprocity. Conceptualising my challenging moment as such allows me to wittingly consider how cultural, political or professional discourses may affect the conversational interaction which creates stories called 'data'. Providing a duty of care towards interviewee participants ought to compel interviewers to employ strategies that make these stories 'liveable with' after their departure.