Running a commentary on imaginatively relieved events: A technique for obtaining qualitatively rich discourse.

In this paper I present a method for obtaining qualitatively rich discourse relatively inexpensively. The method consists in training informants in the use of a technique which requires them to imaginatively re-live events and to run a commentary on them in the present tense as though they are happening now. The selection of events and the construction of the commentary proceeds freely under the control of the subject and with the minimum of interference from the researcher. The aim is to make visible the skillful negotiations, perceptual strategies and understandings of subjects together with their occasioning contexts. The use of the method is set in the context of a discussion of the problems of interview research and illustrated with reference to data from two empirical studies, one with doctors and nurses in an abortion clinic and the other with managers of a financial services company. The paper also addresses the ethical issues involved in the use of such a method and the political problems that can arise in the handling of qualitatively rich data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]