Suchergebnisse

"Fokusgruppen eignen sich hervorragend insbesondere als Technik, um Gruppendynamiken nachvollziehen zu können. Allerdings haben sie, verglichen mit individuellen Interviews, ein entscheidendes Problem: Befragte werden nur sehr zögernd in einer Gruppe Informationen preisgeben, die ihnen vertraulich scheinen. Insoweit bedeutet die Wertschätzung dieses spezifischen Instruments Fokusgruppen mitunter einen Verlust an wichtigen Informationen zur Beantwortung der Forschungsfrage. Ich schlage deshalb eine Technik vor, das interaktive Interview, mit dem ich die besondere Potenz eines individuellen und eines Gruppensettings zu verbinden versucht habe. Dabei führt der oder die Forschende alternative Positionen im Gespräch ein und versucht auf diese Weise, diskursive Dynamiken zu generieren, die denen vergleichbar sind, die aus Gruppensituationen resultieren. Ich illustriere diese Vorgehensweise an einer Fallstudie zur Rolle der europäischen Integration in der post-kommunistischen Demokratisierung Bulgariens." (Autorenreferat)

Forming focus groups as a particular technique for gathering information gives excellent results in tracing group discursive dynamics. Compared to individual interviews, however, it has an inherent setback. Expressing opinions without sufficient confidentiality protection makes informants hesitant. Trying to trace group dynamics at any cost may lead to losing important information regarding the research question. This research note proposes a new technique, interactive interviews, that combines the strengths of individual and group formats. In this technique, the researcher reproduces alternative discourses trying to engage informants in discursive dynamics identical to that found in focus groups. The results cover not only the eventual discursive change in informants, but also the discursive tensions that the researcher experiences. This note presents evidence of the testing of this technique on a case dealing with the role of EU integration on post-communist democratization in Bulgaria.URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs150189 ; La formación de grupos focales como una técnica particular para la recopilación de información da excelentes resultados en el trazado de la dinámica discursiva del grupo. Sin embargo, en comparación con entrevistas individuales, presenta una dificultad inherente. Expresar opiniones sin la suficiente protección de confidencialidad torna dubitativos a los informantes. El intentar trazar la dinámica de grupo a cualquier precio puede conducir a la pérdida de información importante con respecto a la pregunta de investigación. Esta nota de investigación propone una nueva técnica, entrevista interactiva, que combina las ventajas de los formatos individuales y de grupo. En esta técnica, el investigador reproduce discursos alternativos tratando de involucrar a los informantes en dinámicas discursivas idénticas a las encontradas en los grupos focales. Los resultados abarcan no sólo el eventual cambio discursivo en informantes, sino también las tensiones discursivas que experimenta ...

European Union integration was conceived as a process of gradual convergence of different national social norms and values through common supranational institutions; thus a new EU-influenced national identity had to harmoniously merge with old national traits. In-depth research, based on interviews and other triangulating techniques in two post-communist Balkan countries, Bulgaria and Macedonia, suggests that the process of EU integration, with respect to national identities, is more complex than previously thought. The new national identity, influenced by EU integration, for those who accept it, does not always join seamlessly with old national traits. It may completely replace national loyalty, or, alternatively, be completely marginalized by a revival of ethnic nationalism.

Are the post-communist politicians changing their political ideologies as a result of European Union (EU) integration? Are they more likely to accept democratic norms and procedures as their countries are moving toward EU membership? The existing literature provides mutually excluding answers. This paper aims to settle down this dispute by bringing up ideological evolution of some key political decision makers in two post-communist countries, Bulgaria and Macedonia. These cases represent countries on different stages of EU integration. Findings were triangulated through in-depth interviews with citizens in both countries that took place between 2009 and 2011. These findings suggest that most politicians are relatively immune to the influence of EU integration in the sense of identity change. Some of them may move even more toward nationally based identity, looking at the EU only as a tool for serving their national political agenda. However, there are politicians who have also developed a new complex European identity allowing them to look at the political world differently, not only accepting democratic norms, but also acting simultaneously on different levels, national and supranational.