ABSTRACT
A number of methodological studies have pinpointed the importance of the differences between the researcher and the interviewee in in-depth interviewing with regard to gender, class and race and the effect these differences might have upon the interview process. In the main, these studies have concentrated on the politics and ethics of social research, with gender and race being the dominating themes in most of the feminists’ critiques and Black analysts’ criticisms (Carby 1982; Phoenix 1988; Collins 1990). So far, very little work has been done on the various assumptions made by the interviewees regarding the sexual and cultural identity of the researcher and what data there are tend to be impressionistic rather than based on a methodological approach (see Chung 1985; Bhabha 1990; Hall 1988, 1991).
