In Goffman's terms, qualitative interviews are social encounters with their own realities. Hence, the ‘situational critique’ holds that interviews cannot produce knowledge about the world beyond these encounters, and that other methods, ethnography in particular, render lived life more accurately. The situational critique cannot be dismissed; yet interviewing remains an indispensable sociological tool. This paper demonstrates the value that situationalism holds for interviewing. We examine seemingly contradictory findings from interview studies of middle-class identity (cultural hierarchies and/or egalitarianism?). We then render these contradictions comprehensible by interpreting data excerpts through ‘methodological situationalism’: Goffman's theories of interaction order, ritual, and frontstage/backstage. In ‘situationalist interviewing,’ we suggest that sociologists be attentive to the ‘imagined audiences’ and ‘imagined communities’. These are key to identifying the situations, interaction orders, and cultural repertoires that lie beyond the interview encounter, but to which it refers. In sum, we argue for greater situational awareness among sociologists who must rely on interviews. We also discuss techniques and measures that can facilitate situational awareness. A promise of situational interviewing is that it helps us make sense of contradictions, ambiguities, and disagreements within and between interviews.

用戈夫曼的话来说，定性访谈是与他们自己的现实的社会接触。因此，“情境批判”认为，访谈不能产生关于这些相遇之外的世界的知识，而其他方法，特别是民族志，可以更准确地呈现生活。不能忽视情境批判；然而，访谈仍然是不可或缺的社会学工具。这篇论文证明了价值这种情境主义适用于面试。我们检查了中产阶级身份（文化等级和/或平等主义？）的访谈研究中看似矛盾的发现。然后，我们通过“方法论情境主义”解释数据摘录，从而使这些矛盾变得易于理解：戈夫曼的互动秩序、仪式和前台/后台理论。在“情境主义访谈”中，我们建议社会学家关注“想象中的观众”和“想象中的社区”。这些是识别访谈之外但它所指的情况、互动顺序和文化曲目的关键。总之，我们主张在必须依赖访谈的社会学家中提高情境意识。我们还讨论了可以促进态势感知的技术和措施。