ABSTRACT
We want to bring into our account the different ways in which the people we interviewed made sense of the research process. In a straightforward way people were voluntarily participating in a research project, freely and generously giving their time and sharing their lives. At the same time they were making sense of the activity and using it for their own purposes. Silverman (1993) discusses the different contexts in life where people experience the kind of activities used in this research - such as interviews, hearing one's own words recorded or seeing them transcribed, giving a summary account of oneself, receiving feedback about how others see you. He suggests that people try to situate the research among these other familiar contexts, using them to frame and make sense ofwhat is going on.
