ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an application of in-depth interviews to the study of translators and interpreters working for international organisations. It first introduces the scope of sociological approaches to legal interpreting and translation and then describes the different steps required to conduct a qualitative study. From an informed operationalisation of the theoretical basis of the research, which is illustrated by the definition of the different dimensions of status, prestige and interactional power, the study then moves on to describe the data-gathering technique explored – in-depth interviews – its advantages and the difficulties which may arise in designing and conducting research based on in-depth interviews. Two data analysis techniques – content analysis and narrative analysis – are then summarily described, and their application is illustrated with some of the results of a research project that aims at defining the factors impacting translators’ and interpreters’ interactional power and its implications for structural power.
