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This article takes a critical look at the notion of social distance, based on fieldwork carried out in a black ghetto in Brooklyn. Social distance is created in the interaction between the survey-taker and the respondent; the survey respondent can demonstrate the strategic competence needed to reduce or instrumentalise the distance while the survey-taker can show the cultural competence to minimise the negative aspects. Reflexive analysis of survey interaction is therefore not only an exercise in methodology but also a way of producing ideas.