Qualitative strategy and defense: Maintenance as social interaction in the military context
Type de matériel :
19
This article focuses on methodological issues encountered in sociological research on the military. More precisely, it focuses on the practice of qualitative interviews in the military field. The article therefore deals with two main intertwined issues: qualitative and comparative method and reflexivity. Although the use of the qualitative method, especially qualitative interviews, provides a rich and unique way to have access to data and social actors in the military field, it does however raise the question of how to interview military officers and encourage them to talk without leading them to transgress their reserve duty, which also involves remaining aware of the particularities of the army as a social institution (based on secrecy, hierarchies, and codified language). This article therefore first offers a reflection on the qualitative method of studying the military field, taking into account a specific dimension in the choice of this method: the comparative approach. The article then examines the question of the implementation of qualitative interviews among military actors as a social interaction and addresses the question of reflexivity. Lastly, the article provides an analysis of the collected word by repositioning military actors’ discourse in its production context, in front of a social researcher (who also is a woman).
Réseaux sociaux