ABSTRACT
However, the interview format has some inherent limitations and weaknesses. Firstly, it is an unforgiving model of dialogue, obliging the interviewee to improvise and capturing every utterance, well framed or not, for posterity. Whilst this may produce the occasional pearl of wisdom or clarity of thought, it favours what Richard Sennett describes as superficial and adaptive reasoning over deeper introspection requiring a more prolonged engagement with the questions and issues at hand. In addition, interviews, stemming from a more journalistic than scholarly background, are often produced at speed – neither permitting interviewers the time necessary to fully understand the works and theories of the interviewees, nor allowing the interviewees time to consider, and reconsider, their stance and how they express that stance.
