Entangled knowledge production: Expert interviews in the context of social discourses

Introduction: Experts often appear to present objective and reliable knowledge. In contexts in which social phenomena are discussed in a morally charged way, such rational and neutral perspective is needed. This is true, for example, for the situation of “stay-behind children” in the Republic of Moldova. In the 2000s, a social discourse emerged that condemned migrating mothers for leaving their children behind and problematized the situation of the children. The discourse was fueled by reports from international organizations (UNICEF and IOM) that relied to a great extent on statements from experts.

Goals and Method: In my Grounded Theory research on these children, I interviewed formerly stay behind young adults to capture their perspective and conducted a content analysis of local media reports to understand the discourse. Additionally, I conducted expert interviews with a local social worker and a school psychologist. In my contribution I focus on these two interviews.

Results: Besides their professional insights, both experts shared their own families’ decision in regard to migrating or staying, although not being asked about. Given this information, in combination with the results from the analysis of the discourse, their position towards migrating parents and stay-behind children appears as justification of their own personal decision, rather than a professionally-distanced perspective on transnational families. Besides, both reflect the discourse in their arguments and don’t relate to specialized knowledge. Thus, the interviews show that experts can be affected by the contested phenomenon, shaping their attitude and argumentation from this affectedness rather than from their professionalism, even if they appear neutral.

Conclusion: Therefore, I conclude that expert interviews in such contexts require thorough reflection. The approach of mixing different data and methods (interviews and content analysis) helped to prevent one-sided knowledge production and contributed to a nuanced understanding of the phenomena in question.