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as, Google Forms and SurveyMonkey, and can be distributed through e-mails, WhatsApp or social
media like Facebook, Instagram, and through LinkedIn, to the sampled respondents. Using online
forms ensures safety during pandemics like COVID-19 and also gives access to larger geographical
areas. In case of structured interviews, the respondents only listen to the questions, at the most,
materials such as flash cards are shown to get the response.

Qualitative Interviewing

Doucet and Mauthner (2008) argue that, according to Ann Oakley, one of the early critics of positivist
paradigm, a rapport between the interviewer (observer) and the respondents (observed) is essential
to understand the position of the respondent better. She is skeptical about the positivist approach
of objectivity and separation of the observer from the object or person observed, and insisted on
investing one’s individual identity in the observer-observed relationship. Qualitative interviewing
focuses on empathy, rapport, and reciprocity in interview situations; to the extent of interviewer
revealing her or his own situations, views, and stands. However, this might get a bit complex when the
interviewer and the respondents have diametrically opposite opinions on the issue being examined.
Qualitative interviewing is also construed as a feminist paradigm, and feminists suggest focusing on
ethnomethodology while conducting the interview. The respondent may identify herself or himself
with a place and the responses might be influenced by the place where the interviews are conducted.
Thus, ethnomethodology emphasizes noting the details about the place and its connection with the
respondent, to accord meaning to the responses given by the respondent in the qualitative interview.

Focus Group Method

Focus groups were used for the first time in the 1920s in sociology but eventually started getting used
for market research. However, in the 1990s, focus group discussions started gaining acceptance in
social science research (Smithson, 2008). In a focus group method, usually a group of 6 to 12 persons
is formed, they are given a specific topic or subject and are asked to discuss among themselves. The
role of the observer or the interviewer is merely to moderate the group in case there is any digression
or any relevant aspect is getting missed out. However, in certain situations, the group is not mature
enough or not informed enough to have a discussion on their own. In such a situation, the role of the
moderator becomes that of an interviewer. The interviewer poses the question and the individuals in
the group respond to those questions, usually, one after the other. Therefore, there are focus group
discussions and group interviews. In each of these methods of data collection, there is a difference
in the manner in which the responses of the participants are influenced by the interviewer, and this
requires to be considered while analysing the responses. Focus groups are now commonly used in
social science disciplines as well as in health studies, education, political science and economic
geography (ibid.).

Biographical Methods

Biographical methods have evolved and adapted to the advancements in technology and also to
the methodology and theories, over time. The origins of biographical methods trace back to the
Chicago School, known as narrative analysis in those days, involved the respondent or participant
narrating his or her life events, by the way of story-telling, to the researcher (Bornat, 2008). This is a
phenomenological approach to study and analyse an individual’s (respondent’s) perspective or stand
in an observable historical and structural context. While the basic focus is on interpreting the story

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