Conducting Qualitative Interviews Online and In-person: Issues of Rapport Building and Trust

Abstract

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic changed the dynamics of social research and posed various challenges for researchers working in the field. Studies have highlighted different methodological challenges posed by the pandemic; in particular, issues of trust and rapport building with participants in online and in-person interviews require further exploration. Very few studies are available on these aspects from the socio-cultural context of low-income countries, where issues of trust, rapport building and internet connectivity further complicate matters. To address this gap, I reflect upon my experiences from my doctoral fieldwork on “Gender arrangements and subjective experiences of female breadwinning couples (FBCs) in Pakistan”. The pandemic hindered my access to research participants and the research locality, necessitating a switch to online interviewing. I conducted 15 interviews offline before the pandemic and 12 interviews online during the pandemic. My reflexive account demonstrates how trust and rapport building with participants in online (via Zoom and WhatsApp) and in-person interviews are linked with the issues of researcher positionality, internet connectivity, gathering of rich data, nature of the research topic, and larger cultural and structural barriers. My fieldwork experiences show that online tools do not necessarily flatten existing power hierarchies and patriarchal challenges; instead, they introduce new layers of complexities and can exacerbate existing social barriers. The experiences discussed in this paper produce multiple insights, including the challenges of conducting interviews in both private and public spaces, the complex role of researcher positionality, nuanced ways in which gender norms shape participants’ willingness to participate in a research study, and the limitations of online interviewing in cultural contexts like Pakistan.