ETHICAL ISSUES IN INTERVIEWING AS A RESEARCH METHOD IN HUMAN-GEOGRAPHY

Interview methods are becoming increasingly popular in human geography . The establishment of ethics procedures in Australian universities fo rces most interview-based studies into an empirical-realist framework of scientific enquiry, usually as adjuncts to quantitative methods. Et hics procedures, while offering some safeguards, generally fail to cop e with issues of power and gender relations in interviewing and with i ssues of representing others through language. interviews with lone fa thers are used to exemplify some of the ethical issues in the use of i nterviewing as a research method.