This article addresses issues arising while conducting interviews that cross risky social and political boundaries. Drawing on the author's experiences interviewing representatives of the two major ultra-nationalist political parties in Cyprus for a case study, I discuss this type of research's intended and unintended implications and consequences by focusing on rapport, trust and risk. The case study illustrates how these factors became the most critical elements in conducting interviews with these radical groups. Lessons learned from this case study can serve as valuable methodological guides for future research in similar contexts.
BeckerHS (1967) Whose side are we on?Social Problems14(3): 239–247.
2.
BeckerHSCarperJW (1956) The development of identification with an occupation. American Journal of Sociology61(4): 289–298.
3.
BenneyMHughesEC (1956) Of sociology and the interview: editorial preface. American Journal of Sociology62: 137–142.
4.
BleeKM (1998) White-Knuckle research: emotional dynamics in fieldwork with racist activists. Qualitative Sociology21(4): 82.
5.
BleeKM (2003) Inside Organized Racism: Women in the Hate Movement. California: University of California Press.
6.
BleeKM (2006) Interviewing the Powerful: Strategies for Research with Elites.
7.
BognerALittigBMenzW (2009) Introduction: Expert interviews – An introduction to a new methodological debate. In: BognerALittigBMenzW (eds) Interviewing Experts. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1–13.
8.
BrewerMB (1993) Social identity, distinctiveness, and in-group homogeneity. Social Cognition11(1): 150–164.
9.
BruceSYearleyS (eds) (2006) The Sage Dictionary of Sociology. USA: Sage.
10.
CharalambousGChristoforouP (2018) Far-right extremism and populist rhetoric: greece and Cyprus during an era of crisis. South European Society and Politics23(4): 451–477.
11.
CowleyP (2021) Interviewing MPs. Available at SSRN 3764202.
12.
CrapanzanoV (1980) Tuhami: Portrait of a Moroccan. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Denzin and Lincoln, 1998.
13.
DamhuisKDe JongeL (2022) Going nativist. How to interview the radical right?International Journal of Qualitative Methods21: 160940692210777.
14.
DenzinNKLincoln (1998) Collecting and Interpreting Qualitative Materials. Thousand Oaks, London and New Delhi: Sage.
15.
DexterLA (1970) Elite and Specialized Interviewing. Evanston, IL: North-Western University Press.
16.
DouglasSPJohanssonJKNonakaI (1985) Assessing the impact of country of origin on product evaluations: a new methodological perspective. Journal of Marketing Research22(4): 388–396.
17.
DuncombeJJessopJ (2002) Doing rapport and the ethics of ‘faking friendship’. Ethics in Qualitative Research2: 208. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781849209090.n6.
18.
DunneMPryorJYatesP (2005) Becoming a Researcher: A Research Companion for the Social Sciences. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
19.
EfthymiouSA (2019) Nationalism, Militarism and Masculinity in Post-conflict Cyprus. London and New York: Springer.
20.
EfthymiouSA (2023) Radical politics in post-conflict settings. In: Radicalization and Variations of Violence: New Theoretical Approaches and Original Case Studies. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 173–194.
21.
ELAM (2011–2014) National People’s front – every people to its land and every land to its people. Available at: https://dbpedia.org/page/ELAM_(Cyprus).
22.
EllinasAA (2021) The interview method in comparative politics: the process of interviewing Essex county council. (2017). The Essex school approach: a whole-school approach to behavior management. Far-right actors. Government and Opposition58(4): 1–21.
23.
EmersonRM (1983) Holistic effects in social control decision-making. Law and Society Review17(3): 425–455.
24.
EsseveldJEyermanR (1992) Which side are you on? Reflections on methodological issues in the study of ‘distasteful’ social movements. Studying Collective Action30: 217–237.
25.
EzekielRS (1995) The Racist Mind: Portraits of American Neo-Nazis and Klansmen.
26.
EzekielRS (2002) An ethnographer looks at neo-Nazi and Klan groups: the racist mind revisited. American Behavioral Scientist46(1): 51–71.
27.
FaheySSimiP (2019) Pathways to violent extremism: a qualitative comparative analysis of the U.S. far-right. Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict12(1): 42–66.
28.
FieldingN (1993) Qualitative interviewing. Researching Social Life8: 135–153.
29.
FitzJHalpinD (1994) Ministers and Mandarins: educational Research in Elite Settings. In: WalfordG (ed) Researching the Powerful in Education. London: UCL Press, 19.
30.
FlynnDJNyhanBReiflerJ (2017) The nature and origins of misperceptions: understanding false and unsupported beliefs about politics. Political Psychology38: 127–150.
31.
FontanaAFreyJH (1998) Interviewing: the art of science, collecting and interpreting qualitative materials. In:Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 47–78.
GewirtzSOzgaJ (1994) Interviewing the education policy elite. In: WalfordG (ed) Researching the Powerful in Education. London: UCL Press, 18.
34.
GoffmanE (1976) Gender Advertisements. New York: Harper & Row.
35.
GoffmannE (1963) Behavior in Public Places: Notes on the Social Organization of Gatherings. Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
36.
GouldnerA (1971) The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology. London: Heinemann.
37.
HammersleyM (2007) The issue of quality in qualitative research. International Journal of Research & Method in Education30(3): 287–305.
38.
HammersleyMAtkinsonP (2007) Ethnography: principles in Practice. 3rd ed.London, New York: Routledge.
39.
HarveyWS (2011) Strategies for conducting elite interviews. Qualitative Research11(4): 431–441.
40.
HearnJ (2006) Rethinking Nationalism: A Critical Introduction. New York: Palgrave Macmillian.
41.
HorowitzDL (1985) Ethnic Groups in Conflict. Berkeley: University of California Press.
42.
IoannouSGalleseVMerlaA (2014) Thermal infrared imaging in psychophysiology: potentialities and limits. Psychophysiology51(10): 951–963.
43.
JohnsonJACheekJMSmitherR (1983) The structure of empathy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology45(6): 1299.
44.
KatsouridesY (2013) Determinants of extreme right reappearance in Cyprus: the National Popular Front (ELAM), Golden Dawn’s sister party. South European Society and Politics18(4): 567–589.
45.
KatsouridesY (2014) Anti-colonial struggle in Cyprus: actors, conceptualisations, methods and motives. Journal of Mediterranean Studies23(1): 31–46.
46.
KimS (2017) The populism of the Alternative for Germany (AfD): an extended Essex School perspective. Palgrave Communications3(5). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-017-0008-1.
47.
Kovats-BernatJC (2002) Negotiating dangerous fields: pragmatic strategies for fieldwork amid violence and terror. American Anthropologist104(1): 208–222.
48.
KruijtD (2012) Research on Latin America’s Soldiers: generals, Sergeants and Guerrilla Comandantes. In: CarreirasHCastroC (eds) Qualitative Methods in Military Studies. Abingdon, New York: Routledge, 20.
49.
LarsenJM (2020) Talking about radicalization. Nordic Journal of Criminology21(1): 49–66.
50.
LoeberRFarringtonDPStouthamer-LoeberM, et al. (1998) The development of male offending: key findings from the first decade of the Pittsburgh youth study. Studies on Crime & Crime Prevention7(2): 141–171.
51.
MarshallCERossmanGB (2014) Ethical issues in researching sensitive topics. In: Hesse-BiberSN (eds) Handbook of feminist research: Theory and praxis. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage, 591–606.
52.
MushabenJM (1996) The rise of Femi-Nazis? Female participation in right-extremist movements in unified Germany. German Politics5(2): 240–261.
53.
NancyJLHolmesB (1990) The Nazi myth. Critical Inquiry16(2): 291–312.
54.
NicosiaLL (2023) Cyprus: Unprecedented Violence Against Immigrants. Made for Minds. Cyprus: Greek Editorial Office in Nicosia.
55.
NightingaleDCrombyJ (1999) Social Constructionist Psychology: A Critical Analysis of Theory and Practice. NewYork, UK: McGraw-Hill Education.
56.
NussbaumMC (2001) Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
57.
OakleyA (1981) Interviewing women: a contradiction in terms? In: RobertsH (ed) Doing Feminist Research. London: Routledge, 32.
58.
OstranderSA (1993) “Surely you’re not in this just to be helpful” access, rapport, and interviews in three studies of elites. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography22(1): 7–27.
59.
PapadakisY (2008) Narrative, memory and history in divided Cyprus: a comparison of school books on the history of Cyprus. History & Memory20: 128–148.
60.
PearsonE (2020) Gendered reflections? Extremism in the UK’s radical right and al-Muhajiroun networks. In Terrorism, gender and women. UK: Routledge137–160.
61.
PepinskyTB (2019) The return of the single-country study. Annual Review of Political Science22: 187–203.
62.
PfadenhauerM (2009) At eye level: the expert interview – A talk between expert and quasi-expert. In: BognerALittigBMenzW (eds) Interviewing Experts. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 81–97.
SlukaJA (1995) Domination, resistance and political culture in Northern Ireland’s catholic-nationalist ghettos. Critique of Anthropology15(1): 71–102.
69.
SlukaJA (2007) Silent but still deadly: guns and the peace process in northern Ireland. In: SpringwoodC (eds) Open fire: Understanding Global Gun Culture. London: Berg, 56–73.
70.
SmithAD (1986) The Ethnic Origins of Nations. Oxford: Blackwell.
71.
SmythLMitchellC (2008) Researching conservative groups: rapport and understanding across moral and political boundaries. International Journal of Social Research Methodology11(5): 441–452.
72.
StaceyJ (2010) The ethics of risky fieldwork. Qualitative Research10(3): 293–300.
73.
StavrakakisYKatsamb ekisGNikisianisN, et al. (2017) Extreme right-wing populism in Europe: revisiting a reified association. Critical Discourse Studies14(4): 420–439.
74.
SugiuraLWilesRPopeC (2017) Ethical challenges in online research: public/private perceptions. Research Ethics13: 184–199.
75.
TanseyO (2007) Process tracing and elite interviewing: a case for non-probability sampling. P.S. Political Science & Politics40(4): 765–772.
76.
TownshendJ (2003) Discourse theory and political analysis: a new paradigm from the Essex School?The British Journal of Politics and International Relations5(1): 129–142.
77.
TurnerJHStetsJE (2005) The Sociology of Emotions. Cambridge University Press.
78.
YanoCALeeHL (1995) Lot sizing with random yields: a review. Operations Research43(2): 311–334.
