The Application of ‘Elite Interviewing’ Methodology in Transdisciplinary Research

A Record of Process and Lessons Learned during a 3-Year Pilot in Urban Planetary Health Research

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12474366
AutoresGabriel Scally (0000-0001-6944-6076, University of Bristol, autor de correspondencia), Daniel Black (0000-0002-1474-6992), Paul Pilkington (0000-0002-5408-361X, University of the West of England), Ben Williams (0000-0001-8259-492X, University of the West of England), Janet Ige (0000-0001-6639-0011, University of the West of England), Janet Ige-Elegbede, Emily Prestwood (University of Birmingham)
Año2021
Volumen98
Número3
Páginas404-414
Fecha de publicación2021-05-14
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Urban Health (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1099-3460 • E-ISSN: 1468-2869
EditorialSpringer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1007/s11524-021-00542-1
PMID33988827
OpenAlexW3161597494
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas13
Referencias citadas46

This paper sets out the rationale and process for the interviewing methodology utilized during a 3-year research pilot, 'Moving Health Upstream in Urban Development' (UPSTREAM). The project had two primary aims: firstly, to attempt to value economically the health cost benefits associated with the quality of urban environments and secondly, to engage with those in control of urban development in the UK in order to determine what are the barriers to and opportunities for creating healthy urban environments, including those identified through the utilisation of economic valuation. Engagement at senior level with those who have most control over key facets of planning and development implementation-such as land disposal, investment, development delivery and planning permission-was central to the approach, which encompassed the adoption of 'elite interviewing', a method developed in the USA in the 1950s and used in the political sciences but relatively unutilized in the health and environmental sciences [1]. Two rounds of semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 15 senior decision-makers from the UK's main urban development delivery agencies, both public and private. The 'elite interviewing' approach successfully enabled the UPSTREAM project to capture and analyse the information received from the interviewees, all of whom held influential or leadership posts in organisations that are important actors in the process of planning, developing and constructing the built environment in the UK. Having academic and practitioner research leads on an equal footing created some minor tensions, but it also appeared to strengthen the rigor of the approach through a broad knowledge of context 'in-house'. This form of co-production at times challenged academic traditions in qualitative analysis, but it also appeared to build trust with interviewees and provided greater clarity of the real-world context under investigation. Findings from this study are written up in a separate paper

Civil engineering · Elite · Environmental planning · Formative assessment · Geography · Interview · Pedagogy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Sociology · Upstream (networking · Urban planning · Climate Change and Health Impacts · Engineering · Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology · Health disparities and outcomes