Page 40 - White Lives The Interplay of 'Race', Class, and Gender in Everyday Life

Talk, tea and tape recorders 33
otherwise occupied (for example, eating, playing with friends and watching
television). Although the children sometimes provided dramatic background
noise for the taped interviews, they did not generally inhibit the interviews.
The relaxed and social feel to the interviews was one feature and advantage
of the ‘snowballing’ method of meeting interviewees, as we often had some
common point of reference – I knew or had met a friend or neighbour of
theirs or I had spent time in the playgroup or club where they spent time.
I tried to maintain this conversational feel through the interviews, giving
space for people to have time to think about their answers, come back to
issues later and ask questions themselves.
All the interviews that I undertook were relatively relaxed and friendly
affairs. Although they were inevitably an intrusion into very busy lives, many
respondents appeared to enjoy the interviews, and some said as much. As
Heather put it to me at the beginning of her second interview:

I remember thinking it was interesting, it raised lots of issues that I
hadn’t ever thought of particularly, because you don’t – you just poddle
along, and you don’t, you know, get that opportunity to spend that time
kind of reflecting on a bit of self-analysis.
(Interview 27) 10

For many of the interviewees, the interview process was more relaxed
than they expected it to be, with some commenting that they were surprised
by the way it felt more like chatting than interviewing. This was partly due to
the fact that, although I had a tape-recorder which would be turned on at the
beginning of a session and would have to be turned over occasionally, I made
no notes and kept a mental note of areas to be discussed. The interviews
11
also had a conversational feel to them because I would sometimes offer my
own experience in response to what they had said. However, I would not
want to suggest that the interviewees somehow ‘forgot’ that they were in an
interview situation. But rather, that it was a situation in which they felt rela-
tively relaxed. Emma, for instance, decided to turn the questioning around:

Emma: I’m dying to ask about you, but we’re not supposed to are we?
(laugh)
BB: No, you can ask whatever you like about me.
(Interview 16)

This exchange resulted in a 10-minute ‘interview’ in which she asked
me where I was from, what I thought about class, how old I was and about
my qualifications. This giving of information about oneself follows good
feminist practice (see Oakley 1981). However, these occasions were rela-
tively rare. As Ribbens points out, in some situations, the attempt of the
researcher to place herself and give personal information may be seen as an
imposition rather than as a welcome offer of friendship: ‘After all, is not part