The paper outlines different modes of inference that researchers are able to make from interview data. Rather than championing one correct mode of inference, I argue that most open-ended and semi-structured interviews contain (a) open contexts in which we can cautiously infer about other situations from the interview; (b) contexts that we should treat as hermetically closed; and (c) refracted contexts in which the relationship between the interview and other situations is patterned but not direct. Having outlined these contexts, the paper focuses on two forms of refracted relations between interviews and other contexts of action, analyzing interviews as refracted images of both people’s landscapes of meaning and talk’s promissory aspect. In doing so, the article makes two contributions. First, it seeks to clarify how researchers should think about the inferences they can make from in-depth interviews. Second, it is also meant as a contribution to our understanding of the relationship among situations by stressing how actors’ talk sets up collective action in ways that often end up supporting the projects they narrate.

中文翻译：

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访谈与推理：在定性研究中理解访谈数据

该论文概述了研究人员能够从访谈数据中做出的不同推断模式。我认为，大多数开放式和半结构化面试都包含（a）开放的上下文，我们可以在其中谨慎地从面试中推断出其他情况，而不是支持一种正确的推理模式；(b) 我们应该将其视为完全封闭的上下文；(c) 折射情境，其中访谈和其他情境之间的关系是模式化的，但不是直接的。概述了这些语境后，本文重点关注访谈与其他行动语境之间的两种折射关系，将访谈分析为人们对意义景观和谈话承诺方面的折射图像。为此，本文做出了两个贡献。第一的，它试图阐明研究人员应该如何思考他们可以从深入访谈中得出的推论。其次，它也意味着通过强调行动者的谈话如何以通常最终支持他们叙述的项目的方式建立集体行动，有助于我们理解情境之间的关系。