NARRATIVE INTERVIEWING IN THEORY AND PRACTICE: METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The COVID-19 pandemic has created personal and professional challenges for scholars across the board, but it has hit field research particularly hard. In this paper, I discuss the challenges I faced while conducting field research in Ukraine at the onset of the pandemic and emphasize my coping strategies. However, not all of my research problems were caused by the pandemic but were often amplified by it. This paper contributes to the literature on qualitative methodologies by bringing these troubles to the fore. Focusing on Ukrainian identity in light of the ongoing armed conflict in the Donbas, my research design was based on biographical-narrative interviews, analyzed with the Grounded Theory Methodology (GTM). Overall, I faced two major methodological problems: adhering to GTM's research principles (iterative-cyclical research process, theoretical sampling, and theoretical saturation) as well as problems with conducting narrative interviews. My coping strategies can be summarized as a pragmatic approach to research, as one of my methodological lessons learned is the difference between an ideal-typical understanding of research and the real-typical conduct of research and specific methods. Moreover, concerning the narrative interview format in my thematic context, I argue that Soviet socialization inhibits the impact of Schütze's narrative drives and constraints, but is already in the process of fading out.