Expert interviews are today a standard method of qualitative approach in the social sciences. It is surprising that methodological reflections about the expert interview are still lacking. This book gives a comprehensive overview of their theory and practice. The contributors are experienced theorists and practitioners of expert interviews.

Autorentext
ALEXANDER BOGNER is a sociologist and researcher at the Institute of Technology Assessment, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria. He teaches Qualitative Methods at the University of Vienna and his research interests include science and technology studies, sociology of biopolitics and methods of empirical social research.

BEATE LITTIG is Head of the Sociology Department at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna, Austria. She studies Sociology at the Universities of Göttingen, Hamburg and at the Free University Berlin. Her research and teaching include qualitative methods, gender studies, environmental sociology and the sociology of work.

WOLFGANG MENZ is a researcher at the Institute for Social Science Research, ISF München, Germany. He studied Sociology und Political Science at the Universities of Marburg, Frankfurt and Edinburgh. He lectures at the Universities of Vienna and Frankfurt and his research interests include the sociology of work and organisation, science studies and methods of qualitative research.

Inhalt
Expert Interviews: An Introduction to a New Methodological Debate; A.Bogner, B.Littig & W.Menz PART I: THEORETICAL CONCEPTS: METHODOLOGY OF EXPERT INTERVIEWS The Expert Interview and Changes in Knowledge Production; M.Meuser & U.Nagel The Theory-Generating Expert Interview: Epistemological Interest, Forms of Knowledge, Interaction; A.Bogner & W.Menz At Eye Level. An Expert Interview: A Talk between Expert and Quasi-Expert; M.Pfadenhauer Interviewing the Elite - Interviewing Experts: Is there a Difference?; B.Littig PART II: METHODOLOGICAL PRACTICE: GENERATING DATA On Interviewing 'Good' and 'Bad' Experts; J.Gläser & G.Laudel Interviewing Experts in Political Science: A Reflection on Gender and Policy Effects Based on Secondary Analysis; G.Abels & M.Behrens Expert Interviews on the Telephone: A Difficult Undertaking; G.B.Christmann Expert versus Researcher: Ethical Considerations in the Process of Bargaining a Study; V.Obelen? PART III: FIELDS OF APPLICATION: APPLICATIONS OF EXPERT INTERVIEWS IN DIFFERENT FIELDS OF RESEARCH How to Interview Managers?: Methodical and Methodological Aspects of Expert Interviews as a Qualitative Method in Empirical Social Research; R.Trinczek Expert Interviews in Interpretative Organisational Research; U.Froschauer & M.Lueger Between Scientific Standards and Claims of Efficiency: Expert Interviews in Programme Evaluation; A.Leitner & A.Wroblewski The Delphi Method: Eliciting Expert's Knowledge in Technology Foresight; G.Aichholzer