First of all, to understand where I am coming from, my ontology is a nominalist one rather than a realist one. I argue that our social world exists because of how we, as society, structure it. It is society that has created the social world that we live in, unlike the stars, our social world would not exist without us. Sounds strange coming from an accountant maybe. Accountants prepare statements and present them as fact, but we need to remember that all the rules that determine how those statements are calculated and prepared were made by people. So social knowledge is something we personally experience and, that being the case, it is the experiences that I am most interested in exploring.
An oral history differs from structured, or even semi-structured interviews as the participant, rather than the interviewer guides the course of the interview. Although the topic is framed by the researcher, the progress is determined by the participant. However, because the researcher is able to prompt and focus on statements made by the participant, the oral history interview becomes something that is collaboratively developed by both the researcher and the participant.
An oral history is also not the story of someone’s life. Rather it is the recording of personal testimony delivered in oral form with the researcher framing the topic and questioning where necessary. Due to this, oral histories have a tendency to bring out information that is important to the participant. Although the participant may be discussing his or her life as it relates to a specific topic, information about the society s/he lives in will inevitably be part of the product. Societal, family and work influences will be reflected in the discussions. This makes oral histories invaluable as windows on these social aspects.
Without interpretation, oral histories may be still valuable, but additional value is added through the interpretation of the interviews. Through the analysis and interpretation the researcher can identify and illuminate the power in structures and the constraining of choices that is evident. These are often not seen by the participant themselves, and are highly influenced by the researcher’s knowledge, interest and abilities. The acknowledgement and understanding of the influence of the researcher on this process makes it of paramount importance that reflexivity be used throughout the study.