The aim of this article is, through two case
studies, to demonstrate that focus group interviews constitute a particularly
useful method with which to examine topics which may seem sensitive to the
informants. The central point of the article is that focus group interviews can
help to establish a safe setting for the informants in which, they can create
shared meanings, interpretations and understandings in relation to the topic on
which the researchers wish to collect a group’s accumulated statements,
opinions and experiences. It is argued that this process possesses a
politically democratic potential, as the framework for the focus group
interview creates an arena in which critical statements may be made about the
sphere of possibilities of working life. The focus group interview thereby
becomes a free zone, which not only enables the sensitive issue to be subjected
to the group’s reciprocal interpretation process, but also generates
emancipatory processes.
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